Eyes Like No Other
by riderofdragons
Summary: AU. Yondaime is betrayed as he prepares to seal Kyuubi. A different Jinchuriki is created. Now young Hyuuga Hinata must learn to deal not only with the demon inside her, but the people that surround her as well. Ratings may change in later chapters.
1. Prologue

Riderofdragons: Hey people. So this idea has been in my head a while and it demanded out. So here we go. I apologize for the short length, this was mainly written as an attempt to relieve some writers block and some stress from finals. Future chapters will be longer, that much is a promise. Well, please enjoy. All comments and criticism are welcomed, so please review if you can. Later.

OOOOO

Disclaimer: I own Naruto…on DVD…wait…no even that's a lie. Never mind, I don't own Naruto.

Eyes Like No Other

Prologue

"_Yondaime-dobe_!"

The blonde haired Hokage didn't look up. "Little busy here _Teme_! What do you want?" He brushed his teacher's hand away from the scroll. "No! No, what are you thinking? I wan to kill the damn thing! Not trap it!"

The white haired man slammed his hand on the table. "You can't kill a _bijuu_ you little brat, it's older than all of us combined at thousand times over with the chakra reserves to prove it!" Roared Jiraiya.

"He is right." Agreed the _Sandaime_. "Everything we know about these beasts say a human has no chance against them. The use of greater force is needed." He whispered softly. "A greater sacrifice."

Another man swung in from the window. "It's nearly here _dobe_. You better have a plan cooked up by now."

The Hokage turned. "Yeah I do! I'm going to kill this damn thing, but I'd feel a hell of a lot better if my captain of the military police was getting people to safety rather than breathing down my neck! Now go do your job so I can do mine! Got it Fugaku?"

Fugaku's eyes blazed red for a moment before shifting back to a more neutral black color. "If you don't move your ass there won't be a safe place anywhere in Konoha." He stepped to the window and looked back. "Remember that as we pray we get to see both our children born Kazama."

Minato turned away from his long time friend and rival. "I know." He waited until the other man was gone before he faced his teacher. "What you're suggesting…a _jinchuriki_…is it really the only way?"

The white haired sensei nodded sadly. "A non-human host might have worked on a lesser demon, like the _Tanuki-oni_ that attacked _suna_ many years ago…" He shook his head. "But against the likes of him, only a human will do. And even then it will be risky."

"Damn it…" Yondaime pounded the desk with his fist. "This child will never have a normal life. My child will never have a normal life…"

Sarutobi stepped forward. "Minato…Naruto is not even born yet. How can you…"

"Who else should I ask?" Minato demanded of his predecessor even as tears streamed down his face. "How can I ask any other parent to make such a sacrifice?" He shook his head. "I must speak with Kushina. She is nearly to term… she will understand…" Rounding the desk quickly he pointed to the open scroll. "Finish the seal." He ordered. "_Taka_!"

There was cloud of smoke and an ANBU wearing a hawk mask appeared in the room. He was covered with burns and bruises, his voice tired defeated. "_Hai Yondaime-sama_."

Minato swallowed as he saw the look of defeat in the pale eyes behind the mask. "I want you to go to the front lines and tell Tsunade to get back to the hospital on the double." He moved past the ANBU and toward the door. "Tell her we're making our stand now and need her here to get our final player in this sad farce of a plan. Move." He waited until the ANBU left, though something in the way he looked at the scroll unnerved the Yellow Flash greatly. "When the seal is complete notify the Clan Heads of our plan, have them pull our people back."

OOOOO

"So this is what is has come to." Uzumaki Kushina rubbed her swollen belly tenderly. She looked up at her husband, in all but name, and extended her free hand to him. "I will see to it that you are both seen as heroes for what you have to do."

Minato shook his head as he took his wife's hand and held it tightly. "Naruto will be a hero. I am nothing but a desperate coward."

Kushina smiled and pulled him closer. "How can you be a coward when Naruto is going to be a hero?" She placed his hand on her stomach, letting him feel the baby kicking. "Half of him comes from you. My son is certainly not inheriting any coward like traits."

Minato smiled softly and cupped Kushina's cheek with his other hand. "_Ero-sensei_ and Sarutobi-_sempai_ will look after you both."

Kushina continued to smile, but tears began to fall from her face. "I don't want to think about that right now. If this is to be…" She stopped as she heard a knock at the door.

Shizune bowed solemnly as she cracked the door open. "I'm so sorry to interrupt but…"

Minato nodded knowingly. "I understand. Time is of the essence after all."

Shizune nodded. "Tsunade-_sama's _team will be here in a moment." She bowed again and closed the door.

Kushina pulled her husband close to her. "I won't be awake when it happens." She wept a bit more. "They have put me under…the anesthesia…"

Minato hugged her tightly. "You will be with me in heart and spirit." He fought not to, but found himself to be crying. "_Aishiteru…itsudemo tou itsumademo…aishiteru…_"

Kushina cried openly now. "_Itsudemo tou itsumademo…ashiteru_." She looked up as the door opened and Tsunade stood before them.

"It's time." Was all the blond sannin offered.

Minato walked beside the bed all the way to the surgical room. His hand tightly gripped to his wife's. When she passed through the doors he stood there. All he could do was wait now. All he could do was count the minutes.

OOOOO

"You ready for this kid?"

Kazama Minato smiled weakly. "As ready as I'll ever be Gama_-oyabun_."

The giant toad puffed on his large pipe as he watched the _Kyuubi_ racing toward them. "What's the kid's name?"

"Naruto."

The toad boss sighed. "You named him after the pervert's novel." He shook his massive head. "Well, Naruto and I will have a drink in your honor some day."

"Not until he's old enough." Minato warned. "It doesn't matter how big you are, Kushina will turn you into a pocket book all the same if you corrupt our son at a tender young age."

Gama Bunta laughed heartily. "I don't doubt it at all!"

The great fox was almost upon them now. "Hey, Bunta. Thanks for everything." He set Naruto down on the giant toad's back and bit his thumb to begin draw the seal upon his son's stomach. "I only hope you will forgive me one day."

Gama's head lifted slightly. "What the hell? There's some one else here!"

Minato's head snapped up. "Where?"

"_Gomen nasai_ old friend. You are in the field of my divination."

"_Taka_?" The _Yondaime_ turned and his eyes went wide in fear. "Hiashi! Don't!"

"_Hakkeshou. Rokujyuuyonshou._"

Minato couldn't mount a defense in time. His body went numb and he began to fall to the ground. His vision faded and his world was lost to him.

OOOOO

"I don't believe it." Jiraiya whispered softly as he picked up a bundle of cloth from the ground. "Him of all people, I just…"

"It was his wish." Hizashi knelt beside his brother's dead body and removed the mask. He closed Hiashi's eyes and clapped his hands before offering a small prayer. "He was friends with Kazama for a long time. My brother felt this was better for the village."

Sarutobi nodded as woke Minato. "He will be honored for his sacrifice."

Minato sat up groggily. "I'm still alive? How?" It took only a moment for him to remember what he had gone through. "The village…"

"Is safe." Sarutobi assured him. "Hiashi completed the contract with _Shikigami_."

The color drained from the _Yondaime's _face. "How? He shouldn't have…"

"He saw the plans in your office." Jiraiya said quietly. "He was a brilliant man. You should know that better than anyone. He was your rival for the position of Hokage, he knew what the position entailed."

"He didn't…" Minato's eyes widened as he saw Kushina a few feet away holding an infant with spiky blond hair. "He wouldn't have…"

"Like I said, he knew what the position entailed." Jiraiya pulled back the white cloth revealing a second infant.

Her dark blue hair stood in stark contrast to her pale skin. A hastily copied blood seal was evident on her belly, but that wasn't what drew the most attention. She turned toward the bright yellow color before her pale, white eyes locking on the _Yondaime's_ hair instantly. She reached for the bright color and laughed, causing the three whisker marks on each of her cheeks to curve slightly as she smiled.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Gee, let me think for a moment. If I owned Naruto would I be posting here or printing millions of manga and getting rich? Naruto's copyrights are not in my possession.

Eyes Like No Other

Chapter One

563,982.

That was how many indentations and millimeter deep dimples were in her ceiling. To any normal person, the ceiling would look completely smooth and unmarred, but this rooms occupant was far from normal. The veins and muscles around her white-violet eyes relaxed and slowly returned to their inactivated state. She sighed heavily but did not sit up from where she lay on her bedroom floor. Seemingly, such was the life of eight year old Hyuuga Hinata.

If anyone came into the room right now, she knew she would most assuredly be yelled at. A Hyuuga lady does not lay on the floor in such a manner, nor does a Hyuuga waste their time staring out into space when they could be working, training, or as she was supposed to be doing, studying. She sighed again. How very fortunate that no one came to look in on her. Ever. Hinata rolled over onto her stomach and her _Byakugan_ became active once again as she began to count the individual threads that made up the carpet in her room.

It wasn't entirely accurate to say no one looked in on her. Her uncle came by from time to time, but he always knocked first, giving her time to make it look like she was dutifully pouring over the books. Her cousins used to come to see her as well quite often, but that had changed as well.

2426.

Neji she could understand. Her cousin had begun training with his father as Clan tradition demanded. He would have to work hard to master the deadly _Jyuuken_ combat style of their family, and only three short years to do so before he became a ninja. Hinata didn't expect to see much of him during those three years. It was sad to think this as he was the only one who would talk with her as an equal. They were more like siblings than cousins once, now they barely knew each other.

3158.

Neji's younger sister, Hanabi, was the other one who used to visit. Often charging into her "_onee__-__sama's_" room with barely a knock. Once, she had actually run right though the flimsy rice paper door she had been so excited. It was a common occurrence for the "sisters" to have sleepovers, at Hanabi's insistence, during those years but that too seemed to end all to quickly. Hinata still didn't understand why things had changed. Shortly after Hinata's sixth birthday Hanabi's mother, Hyuuga Hitomi, had forbidden nearly all contact between the two girls. Hinata missed the little girl very much.

5715.

When Hinata did venture past her simple four walled room, she often was stared at. She learned to adjust to it, thinking that it was simply because of who she was. She was the daughter of the great and noble Hyuuga Hiashi, the man who had defeated the dreaded nine tailed demon fox. She thought they were comparing her to him. As if they were trying to see if some remnant of his greatness had survived in her. Hinata ended up developing a habit of staring at the ground as she moved about the compound. She was not her father. She didn't think she could ever be like her father. Fear began to well inside her that no matter what she ever did, her father's shadow would forever make her accomplishments look inferior.

10,345

Her habit of looking at the ground all the time lead people to believe that she was not paying attention, no matter how false that assumption would ultimately prove. At first all she heard were the whispers of the other Hyuuga children on the estate. Questions about the marks on her face. Claims that she was strange and weird. She tried to ignore them as the normal cruel hearted things children do.

15,497

It became harder to ignore when she began to listen more carefully for the whispers. She was disheartened to find that there were many adults on the estate as well who shared these thoughts, and much worse. It wasn't long before she started to hear murmurings of demons and monsters.

17,148

A year ago, Hinata could bare it no longer. She snuck out of her room and out of the Hyuuga compound. Certainly she would be able to walk the streets of Konoha in peace, couldn't she? She felt her eyes begin to water as the memories resurfaced. She closed her eyes and clapped her hands over her ears, but it aided her not at all against their whispers.

"What's she doing here?"

"Who let the little bitch roam free?"

"We should kill the monster while we can. Before ANBU can arrive…"

Hinata sat up slowly and cried into her hands silently. She didn't know why people hated her. She didn't know what she had done, if she did she would have apologized for it. She didn't want people to hate her.

After a few more minutes she managed to stop crying and ended up staring at her carpet again. "I lost count…" She whispered sadly. The young girl got to her feet and walked with practiced silence to her window. Sitting just to the side of the sill, she opened the blinds just enough to peer down into the courtyard so she could watch the other children play.

This was the life of Hyuuga Hinata. She was a member of the most well known Clan in Konoha. She was surrounded by Clan members she should have been able to call family. She had her own immaculately kept room within a giant mansion with servants to provide anything she might possibly need, except the one thing she wanted more than anything.

Friendship.

Without that, all these other things seemed meaningless. She might as well have been living in a dilapidated apartment in the slums all by herself. An empty room was the same anywhere no mater how fancy the house that held it may be.

OOOOO

"_Yondaime__-__sama_, Hyuuga Hizashi is here to see you."

Minato looked up from the various forms and scrolls on his desk to glance at the small table top clock as his secretary informed him of his visitor. "I wasn't aware of any meetings today." He whispered as he began putting some of the more sensitive documents away, the memories of the last time he'd left something out still fresh after all these years. "Send him in please." He called out, standing as the Hyuuga Clan Head entered the room. "Afternoon Hizashi."

Hizashi bowed his head slightly. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice Minato."

"Of course." The blonde smiled and nodded. It wasn't quite the same as his friendship with Hiashi, but the two men had come to be good friends over recent years in part to the late Hyuuga's memory as well as his daughter's situation. Hizashi was one of the few people that could call him by his first name, something that Minato was glad for. It was certainly an honor to be the Hokage of Konoha, but it got tiresome always being called by your title rather than your name. "I was talking with some of the teachers at the academy. Seems Neji-_kun_ is making quite the debut as a first year student."

Hizashi smiled, if only slightly. "Yes, he pushes himself quite hard in his training at home. I am happy to see that he works as diligently at school as well." He moved toward the chair that Minato waved to and sat down. "I assume that Naruto is eagerly looking forward to entering the academy next year?"

The Hokage grinned. "Oh yeah, when I left home this morning he was already pestering Kakashi-_kun_ to go help him train." He sat down behind the desk and laughed lightly. "Honestly, the kid is so much like me at times I can believe I made it to adulthood, let alone how he's going to."

"Kushina must be busy looking out for the two of you." Hizashi smiled a bit more.

Minato nodded. "Yeah, and never shy to tell us that either." He waited for a few moments in silence watching his friend. "So Hizashi, what is it that really brings you here today?"

"Am I really so transparent?" Hizashi chuckled dryly.

"You have always prided yourself on having a calm and unshakeable facade Hizashi." Minato replied. "I may not have the same range and depth of vision that you have, but I see details quite well." Bright blue eyes glanced to Hizashi's hand on the chair's arm rest. "You're peeling the varnish off my chair."

Hizashi looked down and found there was a thin layer of varnish under his nails. "I see." He sat back in his seat. "I have come to discover some things as of late that make me…nervous."

Minato's eyes narrowed slightly in concern. "Like two years ago?"

"No." Hizashi shook his head as the memory of that day surfaced. The cloud emissary had kidnapped Hinata and attempted to flee Konoha. Most of the clan had been at a meeting, but he wondered to this day if anyone would have noticed her disappearance even if that hadn't been the case. It had taken a full day to find the girl and when they did, they hadn't been prepared for the scene.

Carnage was the only way for Minato to describe what he saw that day. The cloud shinobi was dead, but it was the manner in which he had been defeated that scared him. The body had been maimed and dismembered in an almost inhuman fashion. Limbs and viscera hung from the tree branches and the grass was stained black with burnt blood. The odor of burning human flesh was so strong that even some of Minato's most staunch ANBU had been forced to remove their masks as they retched.

At the center of all this destruction knelt the tiny, blue-haired, six year old. Covered in blood that was not her own, it was not immediately clear if the girl was injured or not. That is, until you got close enough to see the girl's eyes. Hinata was essentially checked out, her eyes glazed over and out of focus.

Minato shook his head at the memory as he faced Hizashi. Whatever Hinata had gone through it had required a full month for the poor girl to come out of her state of shock. "I doubt you came to me simply because of feelings of misgivings."

Hizashi nodded. "Hinata thinks I do not know of the times she sneaks…" He paused. "Used to sneak out of the manor." Hizashi sighed and pulled something from the folds of his robes. "I used those times to check her room…to see if I could find something that would let me get beneath that mask of a smile she tries to use."

Minato knew that smile well. Hinata didn't know why people treated her the way they did so she tried to act in a manner that would gain their affections. He wondered what the girl would have been like if fate had run a different course. "I take it you found something?" He took the wrinkled piece of paper that Hizashi handed to him and swallowed uncomfortably as he viewed the once crumpled picture. "Villagers being attacked by…foxes?" Minato looked over at Hizashi. "Perhaps our initial fears were justified after all."

Hizashi nodded solemnly. While he knew his brother was a smart man, time had not been an ally on that fateful night. "We knew he rushed through the seal preparations, there was no telling at the time what kind of mistakes could have been made in sealing the _Kyuubi_ within her."

Minato leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling as he lost himself in thought. After a few moments he spoke again. "Have you seen anything to make you think that she in danger, or that she may be a threat to the village?"

"No." Hizashi shook his head. "That picture is the first and only hint I have found that anything was wrong."

Minato frowned. "That's exactly what I didn't want to hear."

Hizashi blinked in surprise. "_Nani_?"

"She's penning it all up inside." The blonde Hokage replied concerned. "If she were acting out it would be one thing. A cry for attention is easy to deal with once it's heard." He turned in his chair and looked out at the town. "Like if she was caught, I don't know, painting on the Hokage monument or the like we could make her clean it up and then spend some time with her after." He shrugged his shoulders. "Help her to realize that she's not alone if she chooses not to be. But this…"

Hizashi nodded in sad understanding. "But if we approach her now, she will know that we are spying on her. Even if it is not the case she will see it as she truly under as much suspicion as thinks she is."

"She's already fragile." Minato continued. "Those kind of thoughts would only make her more reclusive." His eyes closed and his brow furrowed in frustration. "That would not only be detrimental to her health, but also potentially that of the village."

"Since we don't know what the seal's condition truly is, or what triggered the release the first time…" Hizashi trailed off as the memories of the battle so long ago rose up unbidden. "Perhaps we should consider…"

"The counsel will never allow it." Minato finished sadly. "Though you and I see her as a child, they still see her as the fox at best and a potential weapon at worst." He sighed and tapped his fingers on the desk. "I wish that I could simply over turn their decision and send Hinata far from Konoha so that she would have a chance at a normal life…" He shook his head. "But there would be so much unrest amongst the other villagers. We'd face a revolt that would destroy this village from the inside, nothing would be left."

Hizashi nodded. He of course knew of the councils decision, as the current head of the Hyuuga Clan he sat on it regularly. "Then what can we do? It seems as though there is no correct path for us to send her down."

Minato's frown deepened, "I don't know…"

"_Tou__-__san_!"

Minato looked up as the door to his office burst open and a_chibi_-fied version of himself ran into the room. Just behind him a second boy with raven black hair and coal color eyes sprinted into the room as well. "Naruto? Sasuke-_kun_? What is it?"

Naruto looked around the room quickly. "Do you know where _onii__-__chan_ is? He said he'd train us today but he's late again! And I'm tried of waiting for him every day! So please tell me where he is!"

Minato blinked a moment, then smiled. "I'm afraid I haven't seen him since this morning. Perhaps you can train with Sasuke's brother instead today."

Sasuke looked down at the ground slightly dejected. "_Nii__-__chan_ is busy with my father at the police station today, so he can't."

"Well if that's the case…" Minato nodded and tipped his head back in mock thought, to draw out the two kids anticipation, before he continued. "He might have gone to get something to eat, and Anko-_chan_ has gotten him hooked on dango recently. Do you know where the dango shop is?"

Naruto's eyes brightened. "Oh yeah!" He turned and grabbed Sasuke's wrist, dragging the boy with him as he raced back out the door. "Thanks _Tou__-__san_!"

"Hatake-_san_ hates dango." Hizashi chuckled slightly as the boys left. "More likely he's at the…" He cleared his throat. "Questionably bookstore on that street?"

Minato looked slightly chagrined. "Most likely, he's quite the avid reader of_Sensei_'s works." He shook his head. "I've tried to get him to stop reading those things, but it seems the only effective deterrent is my wife's fry pan."

Hizashi chuckled again. "I can see why."

Minato sat in silence for a moment. "Hizashi, I think I have an idea on how to help Hinata."

The Hyuuga leader looked up, eyes wide. "What would that be?"

"I believe…"

"_Hokage__-__sama_." Called the secretary from the door, still open from Naruto's hasty retreat. "_Gennin_ team three is here for their mission assignment."

Minato motioned for the team to be sent in before turning back to Hizashi. "I'll send you the details later. Keep them to yourself when you get them, otherwise it will all be for naught."

Hizashi stared at the other man a few seconds, curious as to what he had in store for his niece. Rising from his seat, he bowed to the _Hokage_, both out of respect and for the sake of the young Gennin moving quietly into the room. "_Arigatou Hokage__-__sama_."

Minato smiled and bowed his head slightly. "Of course, there's no need to be so formal Hyuuga-_sama_." He almost laughed as the looks on the children's faces looked so surprised by the lack of need for formalities. As Hizashi moved toward the door, Minato's smile changed from quiet satisfaction to mischievous intent. "Hyuuga-_san_?"

The white eyed man turned his head slightly to look over his shoulder. "_Hai_?"

Minato cocked his head to one side and sported a grin that would have easily beaten his son's. "How was it you knew about the bookstore?" Minato fought hard not to laugh as the Hyuuga leader's face turned bright red and the Gennin looked at each other confused.

Hizashi turned and quickly, though stately as possible, left the office. "Damn you Namikaze." He grumbled. "You'll pay for that."

OOOOO

Hinata cracked open her window ever so slightly and looked out into the courtyard. There were a few guards roaming about on patrol, but for the most part it was empty. She always found it hard to sit with her family for dinner. Her uncle talked of the work with the elders or the council. Her aunt about her duties around the compound or with the various organizations she attended at large in the village. Even Hanabi-_chan_ had stories to tell of her time with the other children under the watchful eyes of the Hyuuga nannies. Tonight however, was made all the more painful because of her older cousin.

Neji had talked endlessly about the academy and all the things he had learned or done there. While Hinata was interested in the history of the village and the theories behind_genjutsu _and _ninjutsu_, the part of his story that caught the most attention was the lunch time activities. Children were allowed to run and play with one another and everyone seemed so happy. Neji had even made his first to friends outside of the Hyuuga Clan.

Hinata had listened, completely entranced, by how they had met and how easily they had come to like one another. After a time though, she had to force herself to stop listening. She was happy for Neji, but it hurt at the same time because she doubted that she would ever have an experience like that. She did her best to mask her feelings, so as not to ruin Neji's good mood, and excused herself quickly once the meal was finished.

Hinata's thoughts returned to the present and she looked again at the barren courtyard. Deciding that she needed some air she grabbed her spare sandals that she kept hidden in her room and opened the window wider. Once she was sure there were no guards present she carefully climbed down the gutter pipe near her window and in minutes was on the ground. She stayed close to the wall and moved with the shadows provided by coming of nightfall. After one near catch by the guards, Hinata slipped through the back gate and ran off into the darkness.

She lost track of time as she ran. There was nothing except the ground, the darkness, and herself. Everything was left behind and when she was all alone she could pretend that she was the same as everybody else. Eventually her body caught up with her mind and she fell to her knees in exhaustion from her abrupt evening sprint. Her legs burned with the exertion and her chest rose and fell quickly as she tried to catch her breath. She flopped over onto her back and stared up through the leaves to the stars beyond.

"I'm telling you I heard something over here."

Hinata stiffened and bolted upright. Someone else was out here with her. Her breathing quickened again and she tried to get to her feet to run away. Her muscles barely complied as she saw two figures separate out of the trees.

"Hey there is someone out here!" Exclaimed one of them excitedly. "Come on, let's go see who it is!"

"Ok, ok, just stop yelling." Replied the second.

Hinata looked at the two boys with a high degree of caution. "W-who are y-you?"

The blonde stepped forward and pointed his thumb at his chest. "Uzumaki Naruto! Future Hokage!" He pointed at the raven haired youth. "And that's Sasuke, my future ANBU captain."

"_Oi_." Sasuke frowned a little. "You're not supposed to introduce other people…especially if you make it sound like an after thought…" He grumbled slightly as he crossed his hands over his chest. "_Kimi wa_?"

Hinata looked down at the ground, unsure of what to do. People never spoke so openly to her. "_Ano…"_ She looked up just in time to see Naruto smiling at her.

"_Ano_?" Naruto teased. "Did you forget your own name?"

Hinata blushed and shook her head quickly. "Hyuuga…Hinata."

"Hyuuga?" Naruto blinked. "So you must be from that really fancy clan then?"

Sasuke smacked Naruto in the back of the head. "_Baka_, you mean you couldn't tell that just by looking at her eyes?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and turned to Sasuke with his fists raised in challenge. "You didn't have to hit me! I thought her eyes were just like that! It's not like they switch they way Itachi-_nii_'s eyes change!"

"Change?" Hinata whispered quietly. "Then you must be from…"

Sasuke nodded. "Uchiha Sasuke."

"_Ne_ were you out here training too Hina-_chan_?" Naruto asked as he returned his attention to the girl. He smiled brightly. "Yeah, you must have been training really hard cause your face is all dirty."

Hinata blushed as she realized that he must have seen her whisker marks even in the low light. "_Ano_…I was just…I wanted to run…"

Naruto nodded. "Stamina training is good at night cause the sun doesn't make you even more hot." He looked over at Sasuke then back a Hinata. "_Ne_ you want to train with us Hina-_chan_?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto strangely a moment. "You shouldn't call her by that so recklessly, you only just met her. You can't give her a nickname like that all of a sudden." He looked at Hinata again. "Besides, Kakashi-_nii_ and _onii__-__chan_ said we're only supposed to train with them."

Hinata felt her heart sink. She had been so excited when Naruto asked her to train with them. "It's ok…" She began to whisper.

"But their always to busy to train us!" Naruto interrupted loudly. "So what difference does it make if we let Hina-_chan_ join us?" He thought for a moment. "Plus _Gennin_ teams are made of three people so we'd get practice with that as well."

Hinata stood with her breath held tight as Sasuke seemed to contemplate this idea. "I don't know much about training…" She finally spoke when she could bare the silence no longer. "But I'd like to help if I can."

"See?" Naruto prodded verbally. "She's just like us wanting to train." He leaned in and "whispered" to Sasuke. "And if she's got eyes like yours maybe she can help you get them even earlier than Itachi-_nii_ did."

Hinata of course heard Naruto's idea, since he wasn't exactly trying to hide it. Even more so, she saw Sasuke's eyes light up in excitement for the idea. "The _Byakugan_and the _Sharingan_ are said to be cousin _doujutsu_. I don't know everything, but I'll share what I do know…"

Sasuke smiled, though a bit wolfishly. "I guess…we can all train together."

Hinata dared not respond for a moment, afraid that the boys would tease her and run away at any second. When nothing happened Hinata found herself smiling brightly at them as her eyes began to well. She bowed deeply to them both. "Thank you very much! I promise I'll work very hard!"

Naruto's usual full face smile appeared as he scratched the back of his head. "All right! Let's get started then!"

Sasuke smirked. "Now you've gone and done it Hyuuga."

Hinata picked her head up and looked confused by Sasuke's statement. "I've…done what?"

Sasuke's smirk remained as he turned and began to walk back to where they were training earlier. "You can't say things like 'promise' around Naruto. He gets to excited."

Hinata blinked. "Why is that?"

"Because a promise is a very important bond between people." Naruto held out his hand to Hinata, offering to lead her to their training spot. "I will never break a promise, never go back on my word. That is my _nindo_." He smiled at her. "So if you're going to make a promise to work hard, than so will I. We'll make sure we each keep that promise, right?"

Hinata blinked at the boy and found herself nodding as she took his hand. "_Hai__yakusoku_."

Naruto turned his head to where Sasuke was walking away. "Come on, you make a promise too!"

"Words are cheep." Sasuke continued to walk, but looked over his shoulder with a grin on his face. "But I promise you'll see hard I work." With that he ran into the forest with the other two close behind him.

Hinata laughed as Naruto dragged her behind him along the barely visible pathway. "So this is what it's like…to have friends."

Naruto looked back over his shoulder. "_Nani_?"

Hinata blushed and shook her head. "So…what are we going to do for training?"

OOOOO

Hizashi set down his brush as he felt the familiar presence approaching the door to his study. He smiled, though there was an underlying worry, as he saw her silhouette against the shoji door. "You may enter Hinata." He chuckled as he saw her shadow jump at his call. He looked her over intently as she came before him. "It is quite late for you to be up still. Is everything all right?"

Hinata blinked in surprise at his tone, but smiled honestly at his question. "Yes, everything is fine." Having just gotten back from her unexpected meeting with the boys she had not stopped to clean herself up or change her clothes. She wondered for a moment why her uncle didn't question her unkempt appearance. She looked down and pressed her fingers together before her. "A-actually I wanted to make a request."

Hizashi was caught without a response initially. The very few times that Hinata had come to his study previously she only asked to sit with him as he worked, but he got the feeling this was a very different situation. "Depending on what it is, I will see what I can do."

Hinata swallowed hard afraid for a moment if she could really ask such a thing. Then she remembered the promise she had made only a few scant hours earlier. "I…I would like to be trained in _Jyuuken_…"

For the second time in less than a minute the Hyuuga Head found himself surprised. "I see. Is that all?"

Hinata looked crestfallen for a moment at his response, but then realized that he had not refused her. "_Ano_…I would also…like to enter the academy when the time comes."

Hizashi smiled. "That was always to happen Hinata." He closed his eyes and picked up his calligraphy brush again. "I suggest that you take a bath and go to bed."

Hinata looked near tears as her uncle seemed to reject her other request. "_H__-__hai…_" As she opened the door slowly her uncle spoke again.

"Neji and I begin training very early, if you happen to be awake at that hour."

Hinata spun around, disbelief on her face. "You mean?"

"You are too young to begin training." Hizashi winked at her and nodded out the window towards the residence used by many of the Clan Elders. "The traditions are very strict, but there's nothing to stop you from watching and seeing what you can learn on your own."

Hinata bowed deeply as tears threatened to betray her. "_Arigatou goziamasu Hizashi__-__touusan_."

Hizashi nodded with a small smile. "_Hai__hai_ Now off to the bath with you." He chuckled as Hinata's foot steps, normally barely noticed, thumped heavily as she ran down the hallway to the bath. "I wonder, what was it you found tonight Hinata?" He continued with his art a bit longer before laying the brush down again. Rising from his seat he moved to the window and gazed out at the moon. "I truly hope…you are still watching over her _onii__-__san_. I get the feeling that everything starts from here." He smiled. "She's going to make you very proud. I'm sure of it."

Chapter One Complete

OOOOO

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry about the lack of update over vacation, but I had a few things to deal with and it left very little time to write. Anyway, please leave a review if you have the time to tell me what you think. I have two potential routes I'm considering from here, so hearing your comments could be really helpful in making the final decision.

'Till the next, live well all.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Kubo, Shounen Jump, Bandai (I think?) and a bunch of other people own Naruto. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those lucky other people. Don't sue me!

OOOOO

Eyes Like No Other

Chapter Two

"No, no." Hizashi chided as he stopped Neji's assault on the practice dummy. "You're using your body too much, relying of physical strength defeats the entire concept of_Jyuuken_."

Hinata watched from the porch, though admittedly though half lidded eyes, as her cousin underwent his morning training before school. She didn't understand why someone would want to train so early in the morning, nor did she get why you would want to get all sweated up before having to sit in classroom all day. She much preferred meeting with Naruto and Sasuke in the evening and training under the light of the moon and stars.

"I don't understand though." Neji complained. "If I can break the bones as well as the soft tissues, wouldn't_Jyuuken_ be even more deadly?"

Hizashi shook his head. "Look at the way strikes are done Neji." The elder Hyuuga held his hand out with his palm flat against the dummy just below the sternum. "Do you see here? What do you think would happen if I hit here as hard as I could?"

Neji studied the position for a moment. "You'd break his ribs wide open."

Hinata placed her hand on her chest the way her uncle had on the dummy. The heel of her palm rested on the soft fleshy part of her upper stomach, but her fingers were in contact with the bones of her rib cage. "If you hit here as hard as you could the heel would travel easier cause it's soft…" She whispered so only she could hear.

"…but the fingers on the bone wouldn't go as far." Hizashi explained to his son. "Since the ribs of the chest are designed to protect the heart and lungs, the bones are just a little bit harder than those of the fingers." He pressed harder into the dummy to let Neji see how his fingers were being bent backwards. "It is more likely that you will break your own fingers than your opponents ribs."

Neji nodded in understanding. "Then for such a strike would it not be better to angle the fingers down? Then the fingers would have the same soft tissue contact as the heel."

Hizashi's eyebrows raised in thought at the suggestion. "Traditionally, the fingers are to aim up, but as the chakra is going through the main _tenketsu_ in the palm I don't see why not. Very good observation Neji."

Hinata held out her hand before her and rotated her wrist so that her hand point up and then down in simulated strikes. The up position felt much more natural. "A person would need to be pretty flexible to make the most out of the down position." She murmured thoughtfully.

"But _Tou__-__san_, what did you mean the 'main' _tenketsu_?" Neji continued, unaware of his cousins observations. "I thought chakra could only go through the palm."

Hizashi shook his head. "The palm is the easiest point, that's why training starts there. As you get older and your_Byakugan_ develops further you will be able to see that there are some _tenketsu_ that are bigger than others. We say that there are sixty-four main _tenketsu_ because they are the largest, the rest are minor."

"How many are there?" Neji asked. "And what is the need for the minor ones?"

Hizashi smiled. "There are three hundred and twenty one _tenketsu_ in all and their use…" He paused. "Well, your not really ready for that yet but I'll give you a basic idea. Watch carefully."

Hinata leaned forward in her seat, eager to see what her uncle was about to reveal. "Could it be some kind of secret technique?" She wondered. "Is there another level of_Jyuuken_ that only a few people know?" The girl frowned in confusion as she watched Hizashi simply expel his chakra into the dummy making it shudder from the force of the blow. "But that was just a normal attack…wasn't it?"

Neji had a look of similar confusion on his face. "I don't understand."

"That was just using the main _tenketsu_." Hizashi explained. "This is with all the_tenketsu_ in my hand."

Hinata's eyes doubled in size as she watched the training mannequin explode into millions of splinters. "_Sugoi_…"

"_Kakoii_…" Whispered Neji.

Hizashi nodded at the two children's responses as he crossed to the next training dummy. Hitomi would be furious he'd shown that to Neji, but every now and then a father wanted to look cool in front of his kids. "As I said, you're not quite ready for anything like that yet." He motioned for Neji to resume his strikes. "But as you grow stronger you will come to realize that's only the very tip of things you can learn."

Hinata watched as her cousin resumed his training with increased motivation. She activated her _Byakugan_ and watched him quietly as he continued to pummel the dummy. Not only did she observe how his body moved but also the way he circulated his chakra. "Bring the hand back, build up chakra, move it along the arm, and then expel it from the palm as you extend." She whispered as her eyes returned to normal.

It was at this moment that Hinata knew she was in for a long road of mistakes while training herself. What little she knew of chakra control was from the scrolls and texts she had read and there would be no one to give her any kinds of hands on instruction for some time. She shook her head at the thought. "I make a promise with Naruto-_kun_ and Sasuke_-__kun_."

She turned slightly in her seat with her attention fixed on one of the beams which supported the porch awning. "Even if I can't do the chakra part yet, I can work on the physical strike." She brought her hands up the same as she had seen Neji and very slowly began to walk through the motions as she spoke them aloud. "Bring your hand back…build up chakra…move it down the arm…and then expel…"

Hizashi and Neji both turned in a panic as a loud explosion was heard from behind them. The Hyuuga leader stared at the scene in disbelief. Hinata was still sitting on the porch but her arm was extended to a _Jyuuken_ attack stance. The post by which she had been sitting was nowhere to be seen, completely obliterated as if by an unknown force. The banister to which it had once been attached swung weakly, still supported by the post on the other side, and was covered in numerous cracks and stress fractures. "Neji."

"_Hai_?"

"You are not to speak of this to anyone. Not your friends, your sister, not even your mother. Do you understand me?" Hizashi asked calmly.

Neji nodded, knowing his father only used that tone when it was something really important. "_Hai__Tou__-__san_." He hoped that that promise did not also apply to Hinata because he really wanted her to show him how she did that.

Hinata slowly came out of her daze caused by her proximity to the sudden explosion. The damage was, in her mind, quite extensive to the house. From her periphery she could see her uncle and cousin approaching her and tears began to well up in fear of being kicked out of the only place in the village she had some semblance of respite. Her uncle was the kindest man she knew but even he must have a limit and she was fairly certain that blowing up his house would push him past it. She tried to stand up and run away but her legs wobbled with fear and refused her. She looked up at Hizashi and the tears began to fall. Bowing her head low, and subsequently curling into a little ball, she beg for forgiveness the only way she knew how between sobs. "_G__-__gomen nasai…gomen nasai…_" She stiffened as she felt his strong hand rest on her head and gently tussle her blue hair.

"That was quite a strike." Hizashi smiled at her as he saw the puzzled and tear streaked face of his niece. "Quick now. Back to your room before the others arrive."

Hinata's mind blanked for a moment once she realized she was not going to get in trouble. Even at this young age she knew not to ask questions that could change such a decision. Far less stressed than a moment ago Hinata got up and ran for her room like a child possessed. An image that she would recall years later, though she could hardly know that now.

OOOOO

Hinata didn't go to breakfast that morning saying that she felt sick. She didn't know what her uncle had told everyone, but no one questioned her about the explosion and no one looked at her any more disdainfully than they normally did. Huddled under the covers of her futon she stared at her hand.

There was no explanation that the eight year old could come up with. She hadn't even actively tried to create any chakra so that shouldn't have even be possible. The idea made her pause. "I…I did think about sending chakra down my arm though. Is that all there is to controlling chakra?" She shook her head, that violated what she read in the textbooks. She was about to reject the idea out right when she remembered something else. As she had watched, Neji had needed to use seals to activate his _Byakugan_. Hinata had never used seals to do that. "But that's only possible after lots of practice…" She wondered on that a few minutes until the door to her room opened. She peaked out her head from under the covers, ready to feign illness only to stop dead. "Neji_-__nii__-__san_?"

"_Tou__-__san_ wants to see you in his study." He smiled weakly at her and shook his head slightly. "Though…he didn't say why."

Hinata felt her heart drop into her stomach. It would seem her escape from punishment was only temporary. "_Hai_…" She replied weakly. She was a bit surprised when Neji began walking beside her. "W-was there something else?"

Neji looked down a the ground and then back forward again. "Could you…" He cleared his throat a bit. Even if she was like a sister to him, he was still a guy asking a girl for help. "Could you show me how you did that?"

Hinata made a sound that was a cross between a gasp and a squeak as her face began to pink up. "_Ano_…I'm not really sure how I did it." She swallowed down her nervousness. Neji hadn't talked to her like this in some time, she didn't want to disappoint him and have him walk away. "Actually, I was trying to imitate you at the time…" She figured she should share what little she did know even if it wasn't much.

Neji's head jerked back a little. "Imitate me?"

Hinata nodded. "I can't start training for another year." She wondered if she should tell Neji what his father had said. Since Hizashi hadn't said it outright and then told her to hide when something happened Hinata thought it might be best if it remained a secret for now. "I was a little jealous…" It was a half-lie, but it still didn't sit quite right with her. "I thought maybe if I copied you I could train on my own."

Neji blushed a bit at the thought that Hinata was trying to imitate him. He looked at the doors that lead to study. "I don't know much yet, but I'll help you out if you tell me how you did _that_ once you figure it out."

Hinata nodded as her face reddened a bit more. Neji was offering to help her as well as asking for help. "I'd like that very much." She looked up from the ground at the study doors. "I shouldn't keep him waiting…"

Neji nodded, understanding that Hinata didn't want him to hear if she got in trouble. "I guess I'll go see what Hanabi-_chan_ and _Kaa__-__san_ are doing." He started to walk away but turned back and smiled at her. "_Ganbatte__-__yo_."

Hinata smiled weakly and entered her uncle's office. "_Hizashi__-__touu__-__san_?"

Hizashi looked up from his work as the girl entered. "Hello Hinata. How are you feeling? Better than this morning I hope?"

Hinata nodded cautiously. He knew she wasn't really sick, why would he still pretend. "_H__-__hai_…"

Hizashi smiled at the way that Hinata seemed so guarded. He wondered if he and Hiashi had ever looked like that as children. "I'm glad to hear that because I just got a letter about you."

"A letter?" Hinata swallowed. "About me?" She couldn't imagine why someone would write to her uncle about her. She hadn't done anything bad that she could remember except for sneak out at…and suddenly it hit her. Naruto and Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke. The whole village didn't care for her, and she had been training with the heir of the second most prestigious clan in Konoha. The Uchiha Clan Head must have been furious. "_Ano_…"

The elder Hyuuga was puzzled as to what Hinata seemed so nervous about. He began to wonder more seriously if something had happened to Hinata the previous evening. "Well, not about you per say. More like a request for your presence."

Hinata began to wonder if she could use _Jyuuken_ on herself and blow herself to smithereens instead of face whatever was to come.

"Don't look so nervous Hinata." Hizashi soothed. "I'm sure_Yondaime__-__sama_ means you no ill will."

"The Hokage…" Hinata squeaked. She felt her eyes try to roll back in her head but somehow managed to remain conscious. "Right now?"

Hizashi nodded. "That's right. He asked to see you as soon as possible. You know how to get to his office don't you?"

Hinata nodded out of force of habit. "_Hai_."

Hizashi smiled. "Just remember your manners and you'll be fine." He turned his attention back to his paperwork. "Have fun Hinata."

Hinata bowed and headed out the door. In the hallway she slumped against a wall and let out small groan. "I really thought my luck was starting to change…" She whimpered as she forced herself to head for the front door of the house.

OOOOO

The waiting room of the Hokage's office was much more plain than Hinata expected it to be. There were a few chairs with faded red velvet cushions that had been squashed flat over many years. The small table in front of her was covered with old copies of _Shinobi Monthly_ magazine and weapons catalogues. She looked over at the marred, heavy oak desk that the secretary sat at as she wrote down various notes on little slips of paper.

The secretary looked up from her work for a moment and saw that the little girl was watching her. She smiled at the girl and giggled as Hinata got so startled and looked away. Turning away for a moment she reached into a lower drawer and pulled something out. "_Ne__Hyuuga__-__chan_, come here."

Hinata panicked and looked around the room as though there was someone else in the room. Finding no one she looked back at the older girl and pointed to herself. "_Atashi_"

The secretary smiled again and waved her over. "Of course, come here."

Hinata slowly rose from her seat and walked over to the desk, studying the other girl as she did so. Her hair was tied back in a short ponytail and she had the biggest muscles she had ever seen on a girl, not that the Hyuuga women on the compound were much to compare to. What drew Hinata's attention most though was the girl's eyes and face. Her chocolate colored eyes looked normal from afar, but you could see that the pupils were long and narrow when you got closer. The only thing that pulled Hinata's gaze from those unique eyes were the red twin fangs that adorned her cheeks. For the longest time Hinata had thought that she was the only one with face markings. Maybe this was something they did to certain girls in certain families? Was that why she had whiskers? "_H__-__hai_?"

"Can you keep a secret?" The teenager smiled as she saw the little girl nod. "Good, cause if Hokage-_sama_ knew I kept these in here he'd eat them all." She held out her hand to Hinata revealing a few wrapped candies. "The strawberry ones are really good, but pick any one you want."

Hinata looked between the girl and the offered candies. "I…" She looked back up at the girl. "Are you sure…you want to give me one?"

The girl grinned. "Course, otherwise I wouldn't have offered."

Hinata nodded at the logic and picked up one of the pink candies before bowing. "Thank you very much."

The girl laughed again. "I wish my_ototou_ had manners as nice as yours. He'd have just grabbed them all and ran off without saying anything."

Hinata blinked. "That doesn't sound very nice…" She gasped as she saw a third person's hand reach out and pick up one of the candies. The older girl seemed even more surprised by the intrusion.

"Hokage-_sama_!"

"Thank's Hana-_chan_." Minato grinned as he unwrapped the green candy and popped it in his mouth.

Hinata looked up at the king-sized version of Naruto-_kun_ and blinked repeatedly. "Hokage-_sama_?"

Minato looked down and smiled at the child. "Hello Hinata-_chan_." He stepped aside and motioned Hinata inside. "Sorry for making you wait, please come in." Before he followed after her, Minato turned to his secretary. "Oh, Hana-_chan_?"

"Yes?"

"Give me a little credit." He smiled. "I do have some self-control when it comes to sweets."

Hana blushed so deeply that her tattoos seemed to vanish completely. "_Hai__Hokage__-__sama_."

Inside the office Hinata immediately found herself gravitating to the large wrap around window. "_Sugoi…_" The village looked so different from up here. She could see right to the edge of the boarder wall and even further if she stood on her tip toes.

"Quite a view isn't it?"

Hinata jumped a bit as his voice pulled her from her thoughts. "It really is Hokage-_sama_."

The blonde smiled. "You can just call me Minato if you like Hinata-_chan_."

Hinata's eye's widened. "But…but_Touu__-__san_ told me to mind my manners…"

"Did he now?" Minato chuckled as he moved over and pushed his chair closer to the window. "Just between you and me, I never cared much for overly done manners and formalities." He nodded to the chair. "You've grown quite a bit since I last saw you, but little boost never hurts."

Hinata stared at the chair with the high back and the thick fluffy cushion. She looked up at the strongest of shinobi and waited until he nodded again. Then she climbed up on the chair and stood tall so she could see out the window further into the distance. "You said…you've met me before, but I don't remember it." She whispered softly.

Minato shrugged as he looked over the village. "That's ok, you were still little at the time." They watched the village for a bit longer before he spoke again. "Hinata, what do you think about Konoha?"

Hinata stiffened at the question. "It's…nice."

Minato smiled sadly, he expected such an answer but had hoped for something a little better. "Hiashi thought so too."

Hinata turned quickly. "You…you knew my father?"

Minato nodded. "Yes, he was my best friend." He turned and smiled at Hinata. "We'd known each other ever since we were put on the same _Gennin_ team. He even almost beat me to become Hokage you know."

Hinata shook her head. "I didn't know all that. I heard he was the hero who killed the _Kyuubi_ but everything else…"

"Hiashi loved Konoha." Minato chuckled. "Though it was hard to tell sometimes." He put his face in to a comically over dramatic frown and made his voice real deep. "But he never smiled because it was not proper."

Hinata giggled at the impersonation. "Hizashi-_touu__-__san_ said that too."

Minato nodded. "Of course, I was just the opposite. He'd yell at me because I was too rambunctious or I was yelling to loud or that I was giving a bad impression of Konoha." He smiled at the memories. "But you know, there was one thing he loved even more than the village."

Hinata watched his face carefully. "What was that?"

Minato reached out and tapped Hinata on the tip of her nose. "You. He wanted to make sure that you had the best chance of a safe and happy life in his home village. That's why he was able to make the sacrifice he did."

"So…" Hinata's head fell forward and she began to cry. "My father is dead…because of me."

Minato looked at the girl horror stricken. "No, no Hinata-_chan_." He took her chin gently in his hand and lifted her head so that their eyes met. "He wanted to protect you more than anything else in his life. Please don't ever thing that you caused his death. I think that would hurt him more than anything to know you felt that way."

Hinata nodded slowly. It wasn't so much the words that moved her, but the way the Hokage's eyes shimmered as he spoke about her father. Those deep blue irises, so much like Naruto-_kun's_ just a bit older, seemed to take on an extra glint of sadness when he spoke of her father. Turning away from him she looked back out to the village. "Minato-_sama_? Can I do that too?"

The _Yondaime's_ head tilted a little in confusion. "Do what Hinata-_chan_?" He was a bit surprised when she faced him again. The tears were still there, but much more controlled and ebbing away quickly. Her eyes had taken a measure of strength from somewhere deep within her. Even her whisker marks seemed to curve a bit as a confidant smile turned her lips.

"Can I do what my father did?" Hinata asked. "Can I protect Konoha too? Die protecting the people I care for?"

Minato stared at the girl for a fraction of a second wondering if she really was only eight years old, then he smiled and nodded. "Though I, and I think your father too, would rather you live to protect those you care for." He pointed out the window towards the Memorial Stone. "It takes someone incredibly strong to sacrifice their life to protect another, but it takes even more strength to live and protect them repeatedly."

Hinata nodded in understanding. "Then that's what I'll do. I become strong for everyone and protect them…" She shook her head a moment. "I'll protect the village, just like my father. I'll make that my…"

"_Tou__-__san_!"

Minato turned just as the doors to his office nearly ripped of the hinges. "_Oi_ Easy there! I don't want to have to call the repair man again."

"_Warii_…" Naruto scratched his head sheepishly. "Have you seen…_ano…_" He paused as he saw the other occupant in the room. "Hina-_chan_?"

"N-Naruto-_kun_…" The young Hyuuga looked between the two blondes as she recalled what Naruto had called the Hokage.

Minato looked puzzled for a moment. "You two know each other?"

Naruto nodded with a big grin. "Yup, we met her while we were training last night!" He ran around the big desk and jumped up to sit on it, heedless of the paper work that got crumpled beneath him. "She's really fast and she's even trying to help Sasuke get his 'cheaters' eyes."

Minato smiled and scratched at his cheek with his finger. "This is even better than I hoped." He thought to himself. "I wanted to try and give her a support structure, but it looks like Naruto beat me to it."

"_Ne__ne_, Hina-_chan_?" Naruto continued, oblivious to his father's thoughtful look. "Were you training again? You have some dirt on your face."

Hinata looked down and blushed brightly. "_Ano…sono…_" She couldn't lie and tell him that she had been training, but she didn't want to loose her first friend because she had these weird birthmarks. She blinked rapidly in confusion as Naruto was suddenly inches from her face.

"I'll get it for you." Naruto offered as he reached out and scratched her cheek gently as if to remove something. His eyes went wide as the markings remained firmly in place. "No way…"

Hinata felt the tears starting to build. Naruto was going to call her a name and never be her friend again. "Why me?" Hinata questioned silently.

"You've got a tattoo?" Naruto asked excitedly. "That's so cool!" He turned to his father quickly. "_Ne__ne_, can I get a tattoo like that?"

Minato wasn't sure weather to laugh or cry, or maybe both, at the scene. He shook his head at the question though. "Your mother would kill me if I let you get a tattoo."

Naruto frowned. "That's not fair! How come Hina-_chan_ gets to have a tattoo but I can't!"

Hinata's mind was abuzz. Not only did Naruto not make fun of her, he wanted to copy her markings. This was all new and she wasn't sure how to react to it. Maybe she should tell him it's not a tattoo at all first. "Actually…Naruto-_kun_…"

Naruto was, as usual, already in hyper mode and didn't hear Hinata's attempt at an explanation. Since a tattoo seemed out of the question Naruto moved onto his next course of action. "_Ne_, _Tou__-__san_, show me the seals for that _jutsu_ again!"

Curious to see what his son had planned Minato complied. "Ok, watch carefully." He ran through the seals much slower than he normally did. "Got it?"

Hinata studied the motions as well hoping that she'd be able to learn whatever technique that was associated with the seals. "What does this _jutsu_ do?"

Naruto grinned. "Watch this!" He ran through the seals quickly. "_Henge no jutsu_!" A plume of smoke swallowed him up for a moment before clearing away nearly as quickly. "Did it work? Huh? Did it? Did it?"

Hinata looked over Naruto for a moment because it seemed as though nothing had happened. He was still wearing that obnoxiously bright orange jump suit and the greenish-black aviator goggles on his forehead. She gasped as she saw what was seemingly the only change. "Naruto-_kun_…"

Minato chuckled and thought to himself. "What an unpredictable kid."

Naruto picked up his father's desk clock and inspected his handy work in the reflection of the glass. He poked at his cheeks with his finger as he admired his new whisker marks. The clock was set down again and then looked over at his peer. "Now I'm just like you. Right Hina-_chan_?"

Hinata smiled and fought not to cry as her elation threatened to overwhelm her. The blushing however was a battle lost. "_Hai…_"

Minato shook his head as he watched the two children. It was exactly what Hinata needed, someone to do and say all the things she was afraid to. He had to admit that he was also slightly hopeful that Hinata would be a calming influence on his son. "So why'd you come visit us Naruto?"

"I can't find Kakashi-_nii_ again and he was supposed to train us today." Naruto complained. "Even Sasuke is busy today cause he's doing 'secret' training with Itachi-_nii_." He jumped up on the desk. "I don't want Sasuke getting better than me so Kakashi-_nii_ needs to give me secret training too!"

Minato knew all to well how busy Kakashi had become since entering ANBU. "Well, I'm not sure where he is today. Maybe you could ask Anko-_chan_ to help you out?"

Hinata watched as Naruto visibly shivered at the mention of the name. "Who is Anko?"

"A super scary girl who's idea of training is trying to eat me!" Naruto held up his arms in a giant X. "No thanks!" He crossed his arms over his chest as he began to think and an idea quickly came to him. "_Ne_Hina-_chan_ can you help me out with that _byaku_ thing of yours?"

"I don't know if it will work, but I'll try." Hinata had barely gotten the words out of her mouth before Naruto had grabbed her hand and started to run for the door.

"Thanks Hina-_chan_!" Naruto waved to his dad and to the secretary as they left the office. "Bye _Tou__-__san_! Bye Hana-_nee__-__chan_!"

Minato leaned against the doorframe as he watched the two whiskered children run down the stairs and out into the village. "Hana-_chan_, are there any more appointments for today?"

The _inu__-__nin_ shook her head. "Nope."

The blonde nodded. "Could I ask a favor of you then?" He waited as she nodded. "Could you just keep any eye on them for today? I hope no one would give them trouble but…"

Hana nodded. "Yeah, she got dealt a rotten hand. I'll ask Anko-_chan_ to come with me. We'll make a day of it."

"Thanks Hana-_chan_." Minato started to go back to his office when he stopped. "Thank's for what you did earlier too."

The teenager smiled. "Like I said, Kiba's about the same age as her. I'd hate for her to be afraid of making another friend cause I was a bitch to her."

"Good to know you're more forward thinking than my generation." Minato grinned. "Still, watch that mouth. I know Tsume wouldn't approve of such language."

Hana blushed brightly. "_Hai_…"

Minato motioned with his hand for her to be on her way. "Go on, have some fun while you tail them too. Ok?" He waited as the girl grabbed her things and headed off down the stairs. When he was sure she was gone he took another candy from the desk and went back to work with a smile on his face.

OOOOO

"It looks like he's not in the park." Hinata informed her friend sadly. "Sorry…"

Naruto shook his head and pouted a bit. "I guess he would be hard to find. He is one of the best _Jounin_ around after all." He looked around for a little while. "Should we try the training grounds?"

Hinata shrugged. "I don't really know him, so where ever you think we should look is where we should go." She followed after him as he began to walk in the direction of the training grounds though her attention was elsewhere.

The number of people that called out to Naruto shocked Hinata. It seemed that every age and walk of life liked the boy. She understood that feeling though it had taken him all of five minutes to win her over. What really surprised her was the way that people were reacting to her when he called her over to say hello to them. Hinata recognized some of them from when she used to go out on her own. She could see that look of hatred in their eyes, but because Naruto was there they pretended to be nice. It was a bitter sweet feeling to say the least.

Still, there were the others. People who she was sure she never met before but all seemed to know who she was. Not only that, she got the feeling that it was because of something beyond the knowledge of who her father was. They all smiled at her and treated her very nicely. The man at the candy store even gave her and Naruto both a free bag of candy when Hinata had mentioned the ones Hana had given her. All those people though had another look in common, they all hid a great sadness in their eyes. They were sad for her but Hinata had no idea why.

"Sasuke!"

Hinata pulled herself from her thoughts as she saw Naruto run of down the street toward his friend and rushed to catch up. "Hello Sasuke-_kun_."

"I thought you had training!" Naruto quickly questioned. "What happened? Did you learn anything cool?"

Sasuke nodded in greeting to Hinata before addressing Naruto. "Kakashi-_nii_ came out of nowhere and gave _Onii__-__chan_ a scroll and then they both vanished." He kicked a rock down the street. "I think they had a mission or something."

Naruto frowned. "Man…I really wanted to train today too." He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around the street and then back at his friends. "So what should we do now?"

Hinata looked around and came to rest her vision on something in the distance. "Let's go up there." She pointed at the Hokage Monument to elaborate on her plan.

Sasuke looked up at the giant faces. "Why would you want to go up there?"

Hinata poked her fingers together nervously wondering if Sasuke would make fun of her if she said why. "Well…The view from Hokage-_sama's_ office was really nice…and the mountain is even higher up…" She trailed of as she saw Sasuke watching her.

Naruto scratched his newly whiskered cheek. "You know? I don't think I've ever been up there."

"Me either." Sasuke nodded. "Ok, let's go."

Hinata and the boys turned and ran off down the street, gaining a few yells from various people along the way, toward the monument. She began to laugh as somewhere along the way Naruto grabbed Sasuke and pulled him back when he got to much of a lead. In turn, Sasuke grabbed Naruto to slow him down when he got to far ahead. Making the most of the situation Hinata tried to run past both of them and took the lead. She squeaked in surprise as both boys grabbed her and dragged her back. All three continued to jockey for first place atop the Hokage Monument laughing loudly along the way. By the time that they got to their destination they were all covered in sweat and breathing hard.

"Wow!" Naruto ran to the edge and shaded his eyes from the sun. "Check it out! You can see everything from up here!"

Sasuke was more reserved as he stood at the edge. He put his hands in his pockets and slowly panned his gaze over the entire town. "_Tou__-__san_ said that Konoha is the strongest of all the hidden villages. It really feels that way when you look at it from up here."

Hinata smiled and stepped up between the two boys. To her right was a future Hokage. To her left, a future ANBU captain. Well, at least according to Naruto anyway. Before her was the village that these boys and her father as well loved. She wanted to be part of that. For Naruto, Sasuke, and her father she wanted to protect this village. She shook her head gently. She would do it for herself too, to show everyone who she really was. She would become Konoha's guardian. "That…will be my _nindo_." She whispered.

Naruto turned. "Hmm? You say something Hina-_chan_?"

"I said…it's really pretty up here."

Sasuke smirked. "Leave it to a girl to see something like this and label it as 'pretty'."

Hinata turned and pushed Sasuke gently. "And it's so much better that you said it was 'powerful'? Sounds like a boy answer to me." She stopped as she realized what she had just done. "_G__-__gomen…_"

Naruto began to crack up. "She sure told you Sasuke!"

"Shut up fishcake!" Sasuke shot back.

"What did you call me duck butt head?" Naruto countered quickly.

Hinata could only watch wide eyed as the two boys began to fight. After a few moments she sat down on the mountain ground to wait them out. She rested her head in her hands and allowed herself a small smile. She knew right now she would do whatever she could to protect moments like these and keep her friends happy. "I won't go back on my _nindo_."

Chapter Two Complete

OOOOO

A/N: _Konichi__-__wa minna__-__san_! Well, I had some free time and decided to work on my other story, but this sledgehammer it's way to the forefront so here we go. Initially, I was going to jump a head a few years to move things along but it just felt to rushed and there was a lot of OOC. At least more than I wanted for this fic. Anyway, I'm much happier with this version. I figure one more chapter of the early years and then we'll get to the academy and main story necessities. So if you have and suggestions or comments now is the ideal time to make them (hint: review…please?). Can't think of anything else to say other than I hope you enjoyed reading.

'Till the next, live well all.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I can't think of anything remotely smart ass to say today…I don't own Naruto.

OOOOO

Eyes Like No Other

Chapter Three

"And that is why it's so important that you understand the art of flower arrangement."

Hinata nodded in understanding as she listened to her teacher. It was an odd thought that being a _kunoichi_ seemed even more difficult than being just a _shinobi_. The idea that she might be getting specialized missions simply because she was a girl when she got older seemed weird. Then again, she probably wouldn't get many missions like that. Only pretty girls got missions like that, not plain girls that had weird whiskers on their cheeks. With a sigh Hinata rose from her seat and spread out with the other girls in her class in search of flowers.

It was early spring, so there were more than enough flowers to choose from as Hinata walked slowly through the field. She didn't really know anything about flowers or their meanings so she just picked the ones that looked pretty and healthy. She giggled to herself as she wondered what her friends would have thought at that strategy. She crouched down as she found a little patch of flowers and began selecting from them, unconsciously gravitating towards the ones that were bright yellow and deep red.

The last year had gone by far quicker than any she could remember. Days seemed to pass like mere minutes when she was with Naruto and Sasuke during training. She'd even finally met the ever elusive "older brothers" of the two boys, namely Kakashi and Itachi. Itachi still unnerved her quite a bit though she could not pin down why. The first time he had looked at her with those blazing red eyes made her feel as though her soul had been frozen within her chest. Of course she didn't say anything to her friends who seemed to worship him. There was no need to rock the boat since she was the only one who felt this way. Still, with their help and her friends' constant motivation her skills had grown quite a bit.

It was true that she still wasn't as fast as the boys, but she was getting closer everyday. Nor was she as strong as they were. Be it push-ups or sit-ups or any of the other exercise she could only get about three quarters of what they seemed able to put out. Hinata still swore that Naruto had a _kekkai genkai,_ even though he denied it, because he never seemed to run out of chakra. Hinata was able to keep her _Byakugan_ active for days, which was something no one else in her clan could do, but Naruto still consistently out lasted her in spars. Then again, she still was to afraid to use _Jyuuken_ in spars. Images of what happened to the deck post happening to Naruto or Sasuke scared her like nothing else. Sasuke had worked with her for weeks to help Hinata better control her chakra, but it still had a long way to go.

"S-stop it! Leave me alone!"

Hinata perked her head from where she knelt in the flowers. A short distance away she could see a group of three girls picking on another smaller, pink haired girl. Hinata could feel the muscles of her face tighten as her jaw clenched. She started to get up and move towards the other girls when another girl entered the scene. Something was said that Hinata couldn't hear and the second girl, a blonde in an orange spaghetti-strap style tee-shirt, jean shorts, and a red hair ribbon threw a flower that lodged into the aggressor's mouth. Hinata picked up her paces as the purple haired girl spit the flower out of her mouth and slapped the blonde so hard across the face that she fell to the ground.

"You really think I'm that stupid Yamanaka?" Yelled the girl. "Everyone knows the poison of those flowers are in the roots. Just for that I'm going give you the same treatment we were going to give billboard brow here!"

"_Sumimasen_…" Hinata called weakly from behind the group of girls. "_Ano_…could you please leave them alone?"

The purple haired girl, who Hinata now recognized as Ami, turned around and glared at the intruder. "And what are you going to do if we don't?"

Hinata's lip twitched ever so slightly and she wondered if maybe she was hanging out with Naruto a bit _too_ much. She walked forward slowly and nervously pressed her fingers together in front of her. "If…if you won't leave them alone I'll…"

Ami leaned forward slightly with her hand on her hips and a confidant sneer of a smile on her face. "What?"

"I'll do this." Hinata's entire stance altered in a moment's time and her fist came up quickly into Ami's nicely exposed stomach. While Hinata couldn't risk using _Jyuuken_, her daily spars with the boys had allowed her to pick up a bit of more conventional maneuvers and use them to decent effect. Her victory was short lived however as Ami's two friends reacted to the assault. The larger of the two girls grabbed Hinata's hair and forced her to her knees with surprising ease as the smaller girl went to Ami's side. Hinata tried to struggle away but the girl pulled her hair so hard she was forced to stop. All she could do was look up angrily as the bully recovered.

Ami slowly got back up to her feet and glared at Hinata. When Hinata wouldn't look away Ami slapped her with all her might. "You think just cause you're a Hyuuga we won't pay you back for that?"

Hinata grimaced as the tall girl pulled her by the hair to make her face Ami again. Hinata licked her lip and tasted blood but she wasn't about to give Ami the satisfaction of knowing that the blow had hurt. "I've been hit a lot harder than that, so I'm not worried about your pay back."

Ami snarled at the defiance and hit Hinata again with a forehand and then backhand slap. She grinned down at Hinata expecting her to cry and beg for her to stop. Instead she saw Hinata meet her gaze and somehow, without saying anything, challenge her once more. Ami lifted her hand and smacked Hinata twice more.

"Leave her alone!"

Hinata's eyes darted to the side and saw that the pink haired girl was crying even more so that before. "Why is she crying?" Hinata thought silently. "She's not being bullied anymore, so why does she still look so upset?"

The smaller of Ami's friends began to pull the bully away. "Come on! If _Sensei_ catches us we'll be in big trouble!"

Ami gave Hinata one last slap with everything she had and signaled for the tall girl to let her go. "We'll finish this another day Hyuuga." With that she turned away and ran off with her friends into the field before the teacher had a chance to investigate.

Hinata touched her cheeks and lips gingerly to see how bad the damage was. She winced as even the lightest touch made fire seemingly spread across her skin. She was used to pain to some degree from her training, but this was different somehow. Even when Naruto and Sasuke hit her it didn't feel like this. She stared at her bloody fingers and could only come up with two possible reasons. Either it was because Naruto and Sasuke were never so vicious in their motivations as Ami was, or they were holding back cause she was a girl.

"A-are you ok?"

Hinata looked up from her bloody hand as her mind came back from her wonderings. She stared at the tear filled green eyes of the pink haired girl and again wondered why she was crying so much. "_Hai_…I'm fine." Hinata forced a smile despite the pain. "Are you ok?"

The pink haired girl nodded. "I'm ok but…" She bowed her head. "I'm sorry you got hurt because of me."

The blonde haired girl also stepped forward. "I'm sorry too. I should have tried to help you out but…I was scared…" She looked away, as though ashamed of her actions.

Hinata shook her head. "It's ok." She assured them. "It probably looks worse than it actually feels."

The blonde girl cocked her head to the side a bit. "It hurts?" She crouched down to where Hinata had dropped her flowers. "Can I use these?"

Hinata blinked at the question, but nodded. She watched in fascination as the blonde picked up on of the red flowers and peeled the stem open. "What are you doing?"

The blonde pulled some of the sap from the stem interior onto her fingers and began to rub it into the cuts on Hinata's cheeks and lip. "The sap of this flower has some mild analgesic properties." She paused as she was saw the wounds she treated being rapidly healed. "You must have found some really good flowers. I've never seen anyone heal that quick."

Hinata really didn't have a response for that, so she went with the other question on her mind. "_Ano_…What's analgesic mean?"

"It's a painkiller." The pink haired girl supplied quickly. "It will reduce the intensity of sensation on areas of injury and will also help to reduce swelling of inflamed tissues."

Hinata blinked. "So…it's like a flower aspirin?"

The pink haired girl smiled an nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

Hinata smiled. "Wow, you two must be really smart to know about stuff like that."

The blonde girl shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know about that, but _Tou-chan_ would definitely get mad if I didn't know about flowers since we own the best florist shop in all of Konoha." She sat back as she finished treating Hinata's wounds. "_Yamanaka Ino desu_."

The pink haired gasped. "That's right. You helped me and I haven't even introduced myself properly." She bowed deeply. "_Boku wa Haruno Sakura desu_."

"_Hyuuga Hinata desu_." She smiled, hoping she had some new friends. "_Yoroshiku onegaishimasu._"

Ino looked over at Sakura. "So why'd Ami-_baka_ start bothering you anyway?" She frowned as Sakura looked down at the ground and mumbled a response. "What was that?"

Hinata on the other hand understood all to well, not what was said verbally, but rather the body language that she herself used all to often. Remembering how Naruto had helped her so many times before Hinata reached out and took Sakura's hand.

Sakura stared at Hinata for a minute but finally allowed the blue haired girl to pull her down where she sat next to the other two girls. "It was because of…" She shook her head and pulled her legs close to her chest as she began to cry again.

Hinata scooted across the ground and sat beside the crying girl. "It's ok…" She soothed gently as she began to rub Sakura's back. "It's all right. Take your time Sakura-_chan_."

Sakura sniffled a few more times and smiled at the other girl. "T-thanks Hinata-_chan_." She wiped her eyes with her palms. She didn't understand why this girl she had just met would be so kind to her, even more when she had taken such a beating on her behalf. "Ami…likes to pick on me because…I have such a big forehead." Even as she said it Sakura wondered if it was the kind of thing that should have reduced her to tears.

"That's all?" Ino's tone was a mixture of confusion and aggravation. "You shouldn't let her get under your skin like that otherwise she'll always try to pick on you."

"_D-demo_…" Sakura began.

"It's not as easy as that though Ino-_chan_." Hinata explained quietly. "It takes practice to get over getting teased about something like that.

Sakura turned to Hinata and it began to make a bit more sense why a total stranger would try to help her out. "You too?"

Hinata pointed to her whisker marks. "I used to get made fun of all the time." She smiled shyly. "Well, actually they still make fun of me because they think I can't hear them. I still hear them but I try not to let it bother me anymore." She smiled more fully at Sakura. "With practice I bet you could do that too."

"But that's not the only thing you can do." Ino sat up a little bit. "Close your eyes Sakura-_chan_."

Hinata shrugged her shoulders as she saw Sakura look to her. Despite the strangeness of this situation Hinata liked the fact that someone was looking to her for support. She watched as Ino pulled the ribbon from her hair and moved closer to Sakura. After a moment Hinata understood what Ino was trying to do.

At last Sakura was allowed to open her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that her long pink bangs were no longer in her view. Her hands came up slowly and felt along the ridge of her hairline to discover the satin-like cloth that held her tresses up and out of the way. She looked across to Ino and saw that there was no longer a ribbon holding back the blonde's hair. "I-Ino…"

Hinata held out a small compact mirror that Naruto's mom had given her a few months ago. "You look really pretty Sakura-_chan_. Here, see for yourself."

Sakura stared at the reflection for a long time. She did have to admit that she looked better than when her hair fell haphazardly anywhere, but… "My forehead…"

"Exactly!" Ino grinned triumphantly. "If you try to hide it, people will definitely make fun of you for it." She sat back down again and her smile softened. "But if you show it off proudly they can't make fun of you for it anymore." She shrugged. "Even if they do say something, if you like the way you look it won't matter what they think. Right?" Ino turned and pointed at Hinata. "I mean just look at Hinata-_chan_. She could be like those weirdo guys in class who wear those face mask things to hide her whiskers but she doesn't. She proudly leaves them out for all the world to see."

"Is that true Hinata-_chan_?" Sakura asked nervously.

Hinata stared at the blonde girl…who could not have been more wrong. "Well, I'd be lying if I said that I never thought about hiding them." She felt her stomach twist a little as she watched Sakura's smile fall away. "But then I made a friend who thought…" She smiled as she remembered his reaction. "He thought that they were the coolest thing he'd ever seen. He even tried to convince his dad to let him get tattoos like mine." Facing Sakura again she shook her head. "Ever since that day, I've never wanted them anywhere but on my face."

Sakura smiled happily. "He sounds like a really good friend." She looked at the mirror one more time before handing it back to Hinata. "Then, since you two think that it looks ok, I'll keep it like this."

Ino nodded. "Good, cause I won't be friends with a cry baby." She then turned a sly grin on Hinata. "So…" She dragged out. "This friend of yours, is he?" Ino's pinky finger came up in the air in front of the three girls and wagged slightly. "You know?"

Hinata cursed her fair complexion as she flushed and all new, never before seen by human eyes, shade of red. "No! It's nothing like that! He's just a friend! Nothing more!" So determined to set the record straight, Hinata failed to take into consideration that she was hyperventilating. After a few more screaming denials Hinata promptly fell backwards and fainted.

Sakura crawled over and gently poked Hinata in the arm. "_Ne,_ Ino-_chan_?" The pink haired academy student shook her new friend a bit harder trying to wake her up. "I think you killed poor Hinata-_chan_."

The flower specialist sighed. "I'll go get _Sensei_." She grinned as she began to run across the field in search of their teacher. "She's got it bad for him." She mused aloud. "I wonder if he's cute?"

OOOOO

"I don't know about this." Sakura fidgeted nervously. "I mean, what if they don't like me?"

"That's what you're worried about?" Ino hissed. "Do you know what my parents will do to me if they find out that I'm not tucked away in bed sound asleep?"

Sakura giggled slightly. "You're parents still tuck you in?"

Ino's face went crimson. "_Urusei_!"

Hinata laughed as her two friends tagged along behind her. "You don't need to worry Sakura-_chan_. They like every body so you'll be just fine." She smiled as she saw Sakura pout in worry. Climbing over the final rock wall Hinata began to make her way down the barely marked path with practiced ease warning the others of the various pitfalls. In another minute they were entering the "secret" training ground. "Naruto-_kun_! Sasuke-_kun_! _Doko desuka_?"

Sakura looked around the clearing as no reply came forth. "No one's here?"

Ino giggled mischievously. "Hinata-_chan_'s sparring buddies are imaginary."

"Who's imaginary?"

Ino shrieked as the voice came from behind her and she quite literally jumped into Hinata's arms. "Don't do that!"

Naruto grinned and laced his fingers together behind his head. "Do what?"

"Hinata?" Sasuke came out of the shadows from behind Naruto. "Why'd you bring these two with you?"

Hinata set Ino down and poked her fingers together nervously. She didn't understand why, but Sasuke always made her feel like she had to explain herself. Just once she wanted for him to see her do something and not question it. "Cause their friends of mine and they wanted to train too."

Sasuke sighed and looked over the two girls. "You two have any kind of background with training?" He sighed again as both the new girls shook their heads.

Naruto frowned and glared at Sasuke. "You know, you don't pull of the cool bad ass look the way Itachi-_nii_ does. You should really stop trying."

Sasuke turned an even more venomous glare at Naruto. "Like you're so much better trying to be all funny and carefree like Kakashi-_nii_?"

"Who's pretending to be like Kakashi_-nii_?" Naruto demanded. "I am funny and carefree! I don't have to copy anyone to do that!"

Hinata sighed as the two boys began to fight. "Anyway, that's Uchiha Sasuke and that's Uzumaki Naruto." She sighed again as she saw her two new friends were drooling as they watched the boys duke it out. "_Auu_…Please don't tell me you're going to turn into fan girls." She pleaded.

Ino laughed nervously and turned away. "Sorry Hinata-_chan_. You have to admit they're cute though." She sighed and watched the boys a few moments more. "I envy you, having them both to yourself."

Sakura's eyes popped wide at the comment. "_Eh?_ Hinata-_chan_? Are you dating them both?"

"No!" Hinata shook her head vehemently. "We're just friends! Nothing more!" She quickly ran over to where the two boys were still fighting and grabbed Sasuke by the collar of his shirt. "We're going to work on your _doujutsu_! Naruto-_kun_, please work with Ino-_chan_ and Sakura-_chan_!"

Sasuke blinked in confusion as Hinata dragged him across the ground. "I can walk for myself you know!" He fell unceremoniously to the ground as Hinata dropped his collar from her grip. Ignoring the fact that he had dirt and grass stains all over his pants now, and a small bump on the back of his head, Sasuke smirked at Hinata as he lay on his back. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you get so embarrassed."

For the first time that she could ever remember, Hinata glared at someone. "You want my help with your 'cheater' eyes or not?" She still didn't really understand why Naruto called the _Sharingan_ a cheater's eye, but she knew it annoyed Sasuke to no end. "Cause I can go work on my _Jyuuken_ by myself."

Sasuke jumped to his feet and brushed off what dirt he could before smirking at Hinata. "You really are spending to much time with Naruto."

Hinata blushed, but smiled. That was the standard taunt the boys would use whenever she would stood up to them. It had started as a joke when Sasuke had been gloating over defeating her in a very close spar and Hinata had called him a "duck-butt head" like Naruto usually did. Rather than get mad, Sasuke had said something which surprised her.

"_About time you started standing up for yourself."_

Hinata smiled at the memory. "Maybe you've been spending to much time with Itachi-_sempai_." She dropped into her starting _Jyuuken_ stance and activated her bloodline abilities. "Shall we begin?"

Sasuke fell into his own ready position. "Ready when you are."

Hinata nodded and began to circle around slowly as she recalled their previous matches. Sasuke's fighting style was a modification of _Goken_ fighting style that had been adapted to suit the Uchiha Clan's needs. Sasuke had told Hinata that this fighting style, which he called _Shishiken_, was designed to make more use of the speed of the fighting style than the all out brute strength. An Uchiha's ability to move quickly both in body and with hand seals was the second half what made his clan such fearsome ninja. However, the ability to move quickly was useless if you didn't have the high speed eye abilities to let you see where you were going. Though this training was technically for Sasuke to activate his _Sharingan_, Hinata also used it to gain a better understanding of her own _Taijutsu_ abilities to counter such a devastating battle style.

"You're taking to long."

Hinata sidestepped as Sasuke attempted to punch her cheek. She spun and placed the flat of her hand against his belly and physically pushed him back rather than using chakra. She frowned as she saw the perturbed look on Sasuke's face. "You're too impatient." Continuing to use her sidesteps she began to draw circles around Sasuke. "Nothing good will come of charging recklessly into an opponent without a plan." She leaned back out of the way of a spinning roundhouse kick and countered with a palm-heel strike to the chest. "Slow the mind and observe the enemy." She stumbled back as Sasuke got through her guard and elbowed her in the ribs.

"Slow down?" Sasuke laughed. "You slow down on the battle field, you die." He gasped as Hinata dropped away in front of him. A second later he felt her ankle collide against his own as she executed a dragon-tail sweep flawlessly and landed on his back. A second after that Hinata's hand was over his face and gripping his temples.

"By rushing you left yourself open." Hinata informed him. "Even when you had the advantage and knocked me off guard you couldn't capitalize because you didn't plan ahead." She slowly removed her hand and extended it to help him up. "Speed of mind is just as important as speed of body. You need to know how to control both."

"_Kuso_…" Sasuke muttered in annoyance. The fact that he knew she had would have liquefied his brains if this was a real fight didn't help the fact that he knew she was right. "You have to be able to react on the fly." He still insisted. "A well made plan means nothing if your enemy can get a _kunai_ in your heart faster than you can get one in his."

Hinata shook her head. "I'm not saying lay out every little detail. But you have to read the flow of the fight."

Sasuke thought a moment. "If I had thought more, I would have seen that you were following the same side step pattern. I could have attacked where you would have gone rather than where you would have left."

"That's true." Hinata nodded and made mental note to find new evasion patterns. "But weren't we doing this to get your _Sharingan_?"

"I was trying but…" Sasuke looked up at the sky. "I couldn't focus it. I could see all your attacks coming. Even though I wanted to make my _Sharingan_ come out…it's like my body knows that I really don't need it to fight you."

Hinata looked down at the ground. "So I'm not fast enough to really threaten you?"

Sasuke nodded, not really registering the sad tone of Hinata's voice. "Yeah, seems that way."

Hinata walked away. "Then there's only one thing to do."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow to Hinata's back. "What's that?" His confusion grew as he saw her take her fight stance again. "What are you…"

"You'll have to help me get faster." Hinata focused on Sasuke and let her eyes return to their normal state. "Push me as hard as you can. Don't hold back." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Then…then I'll be able to help you properly once I'm fast enough…"

Sasuke looked at Hinata strangely a moment before returning to his own fight stance. "All right then. I will never hold back on you ever again."

Hinata felt a mixture of emotions as she heard Sasuke say that. Disappointment, and a bit of anger, that he had been holding back until now. Happiness that he would finally treat her as an equal. Even a small amount of anticipation to see where they would take one another. "_Hai_, _mou ichido_."

Sasuke smirked. "Here I come."

Hinata gasped as Sasuke moved quicker than she had ever seen before. She barely managed to block his punch to her head only to realize too late it was a feign. She doubled over as her breath suddenly left her. Glancing down she was able to see Sasuke's foot in her abdomen as darkness crouched in on her vision. She fell face first into the dirt clutching her belly. "Were we truly that far apart?"

Sasuke stared in wide eyed horror as Hinata passed out in front of him. "Naruto! Help! I think I killed Hinata-_chan_!"

OOOOO

Hinata shot upright from her futon to the sound of alarm klaxons going off through out the village. She looked around her room for a minute, wondering how she got back there, but that thought quickly left her head as she heard further calls of concern from other members of her clan. Thankful to find herself still dressed from before Hinata ran outside to see everyone headed out into the village. When her questions as to what was happening went unanswered Hinata followed them. Even as she ran, Hinata could not dislodge the cold lump that seemed to have replaced her stomach and she knew something was terribly wrong. A few short minutes later her fears were confirmed.

She stood frozen as she watched ANBU of every totem seal off the second largest compound in Konoha. Like everyone else she wanted to know why it was that so many people were disappearing into those grand white walls, yet no one seemed to be coming out from them. Even more than that Hinata wanted to know why the air around Uchiha Manor was scented of iron and copper.

"What the hell happened here?"

Knowing that she was unlikely to get an answer to her own questions, Hinata found herself listening into a number of conversations as ANBU continued to stretch yellow and black warning tape over the doors.

"I hear he went stark raving mad." Spoke a woman.

"Who did?" Asked another.

"Who else?" Replied a man deep in the crowd. "That creepy son of the police chief."

"Itachi-_sempai_?" Questioned Hinata in a voice so low she barely heard it herself. "What did he do?"

"I hear there's no one left." Someone spoke.

"He killed them all?" Asked another incredulously. "I heard he was in a class of his own, but to kill his entire clan single handedly? No way."

"The entire Uchiha Clan is gone?" Another voice asked nervously. "That can't be right. You'd need the power of a demon to do something like that."

"All the Uchihas…gone?" Hinata repeated weakly. "Even…" She looked up just as a number of ninja's in white coats leapt out from behind the wall.

"There was a survivor!" Called another voice. "Someone made it out alive!"

Hinata ran. Fueled by both fear and hope, Hinata broke into an all out run towards the only place those white coated ninja could possibly be going. Never in all her life had Hinata wished so hard that her skinny little legs were faster as she sprinted to the hospital. The moment she passed the heavy metal and glass doors of the emergency entrance she raced to the medic station. "Is…Uchiha…Sasuke…here?" She panted.

"I have no information to give to you."

Hinata looked up into the cold, hard, gaze of the medic on duty and knew she would get no answer from her. The name was lost to the little girl, but she remembered the face well enough and without Naruto or Sasuke with her this woman always looked down on her. Hinata felt her anger rise up like never before. "He's my friend! I want to know if he's ok!" She shirked away as the pink haired woman raised her hand as if to strike.

"Get away from here." Threatened the woman. "For all I know you were the one who did that to him. Get out of this hospital and do not show your face to me again."

Hinata ran down the hall, away from the medic station, but had no intention of leaving the hospital. "_Byakugan_." She tore through the hospital on legs that screamed for rest while her all-seeing eyes scanning everywhere. She searched two full floors without success and was beginning to lose hope when she saw a large group of activity in one of the surgery rooms.

Despite her panic she knew she couldn't go into the room while the red light above the door was still on. Keeping her chakra funneled into her eyes Hinata pressed her ear against the door to try to find out what was going on.

"He's going critical! Get the crash cart!"

"There's no explanation for this!"

"The damage isn't physical! It's a _genjutsu_ like nothing we've encountered! Damn it! Where the hell's Inoichi?!"

"It's not going to matter if we don't stabilize his heart!"

"Hina-_chan_?"

Hinata spun around with tears in her eyes as she heard the familiar voice. "Naruto-_kun_…"

The blonde looked at the girl and then at the surgery room doors. "Is he?"

Hinata could only nod, not trusting herself to speak after hearing the nervous timber of Naruto's voice. She watched as Naruto pulled one of the hospital benches from the side of the hallway and began to push it toward the door. Understanding what he wanted to do she helped him push the heavy bench off to the side of the door. Once in place she climbed up beside Naruto and peered in through the observation window. "W-will Sasuke-_kun_ be all right?"

"Of course he'll be ok!" Naruto declared, but his voice didn't have the normal confidence he usually did. "I mean…he's Sasuke…" Naruto trailed off. "He's too stubborn to let anyone beat him for long…"

Hinata's eyes flicked back and forth from the various medics to Sasuke within the surgical room. "But Naruto-_kun_…they said…they said it was…"

"I don't believe them!"

Hinata shook where she stood on the bench. She had been yelled at before, many times in fact. So many times she thought she had gotten used to it, but Naruto had never even raised his voice to her before. It hurt worse than the kick Sasuke had given her earlier and left her unable to answer.

Naruto seemed to pick up on what he'd done and looked down at the ground a moment. "_Gomen_…" His eyes returned to Sasuke's unmoving body. "I just can't believe that Itachi-_nii_ would do something like this…" He shook his head. "I won't believe it until Sasuke himself tells me that it's true."

Hinata wished she had the same conviction as Naruto. Her head jerked around as she saw someone moving toward Sasuke from another entrance. "Who's that?"

Naruto shook his head as he looked at the man with the long blonde ponytail moved into the room. "I don't know. Maybe he's a doctor that can help Sasuke."

Hinata began to press her fingers together nervously as she watched the man force open Sasuke's eyes to peer into them. "I hope so." Her confusion grew as she watched the man began making hand seals and promptly went slack. She and Naruto both jumped and went to rush the door as they heard Sasuke scream. Hinata didn't get far though as she felt someone grab the collar of her shirt. "Let me go! He's hurting Sasuke-_kun_!"

"Calm down Hinata-_chan_." Soothed a woman's voice. "That's Yamanaka Inoichi. He's the best mental investigator in all of Konoha. He's going to help Sasuke-_kun_ get better."

Naruto stopped pulling against the strong grip and slowly turned around. "_Kaa-chan_…"

Hinata also ceased her attempt to get away and turned around to face Naruto's, and in a way her own, mother. The normally striking, strong, blue eyes were pink edged with irritation from crying. Lightly tanned skin that always had a healthy glow was pulled tight and streaked with tears. The perfectly placed cinnamon red-brown hair that always framed her face was straggly and unkempt. "Kushina-_okaa-san_, will Ino's dad really help Sasuke-_kun_?"

Kushina smiled sadly. "He's the best there is Hinata-_chan_." She took the two children back over to the bench, shoving it lightly with her foot so it was back against the wall, and sat down with one on either side. "Are you two ok?"

"We're fine _kaa-chan_." Naruto insisted and tried to struggled out of his mother's grip to check on Sasuke again. "Sasuke's the one who got hurt. Not us."

Kushina's eyes wandered from her son to Hinata. Over the past year she had learned how to read the little girl fairly well. The nervously pressed fingers, the gaze at the floor, and the slight shiver were all bad signs. "How about you Hinata-_chan_?"

"I'm scared for Sasuke-_kun._" Hinata spoke quietly and began to cry. "The medic's said…"

Kushina nodded and pulled the little girl close to her letting Hinata rest her head on her chest. "I know sweetheart, I know." She gently stroked her fingers through the little girl's hair. "Medic's say a lot of things though so don't worry about all that right now. You just keep Sasuke-_kun_ in your thoughts and he'll be just fine." She pulled her son back to her and gave him a gentle hug. "You too, you hear me?" Kushina couldn't help but feel a small amount of pride as both children nodded. Nothing more needed to be said as the three settled in for a long night of waiting.

OOOOO

When Hinata awoke she found herself alone on the hospital bench. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she looked about for her two companions but found only an empty hallway. Her concern for the Uzumakis was quickly forgotten however as she saw the little red light above the door to the surgical room click off. A moment later the doors parted and a wheeled hospital bed slowly made its way through. The fact that Hinata could see no movement beneath the white bed linins caused a lump of unimaginable proportions to form in her throat.

"I think he's through the worst of it."

Hinata's attention raced to the tall blonde man who was speaking to another doctor. "Ino-_chan's_ father." She reminded herself as she studied his face. There were deep worry marks upon his brow and his skin was pale and drawn. The sickly sheen of sweat that still clung to his skin made him look as though he were the one that should be seeking medical attention. Fearful thoughts of what Sasuke had gone through ran rampant through Hinata's mind. If his doctor could be put in such a state simply from treating him…

"_Tsukiyomi_…" Inoichi muttered and shook his head. "The texts on _Kinjutsu_ about it hardly do it justice…" He began to rifle through his supply pouch in search of something. "He's come along way but he's not out of the woods yet." Finding what he was looking for, Inoichi opened the small canister and quickly ate a few of the small red pills that were within. "If anything happens please send for me at once…"

"_Sumimasen…Yamanaka-sama_?" Hinata rose from her seat on the bench and bowed her head low and kept it there, hoping with all her might that he would be one of people who would talk with her. "W-will Sasuke-_kun_ be all right?"

Inoichi turned casually toward the small voice that issued from behind him and settled on the little girl. He of course recognized her instantly and felt a small smile tug at his lips. He knew all to well the kind of life the girl had lead up until now, and had sided with the _Yondaime_ that things were not as the should be. "I recognize you…" He spoke calmly and clearly as he crossed over to the girl and knelt before her so that he could be at her eye level. "You're the little one who tried to sneak Ino out of the house earlier tonight. Right?"

Hinata blushed furiously now that she knew she had been caught. She kept her head lowered, afraid that he would punish her. "I'm s-sorry Yamanaka-_sama_…I…." She tensed as she felt a strong hand gently rest on her head and ruffle her hair but dared not move.

"Oh?" Inoichi chuckled. "Whenever I do that to Ino she screams at me that I've messed up her hair." He smiled as Hinata looked up at him. "Maybe she'll learn to be more relaxed like you in time." He stood and motioned for Hinata to follow him. "What's your name?"

"Hyuuga Hinata." She replied softly, though her mind raced. This man…was it possible she didn't even know who she was? How could that be? Everyone seemed to know who she was. He even seemed happy that Ino was friends with her. This didn't make any sense. She shook her head, now wasn't the time to think of herself. "Is Sasuke-_kun_ going to be ok?" She asked again.

Inoichi lead Hinata into a room were the medics were placing Sasuke's bed and hooking him up to various monitoring devices. "A lot has happened to him tonight." He told the girl. "It will take him some time to recover. I think it would be best if there was a friendly face to be there when he woke up."

"I'll stay with him."

Inoichi smiled at Hinata and nodded. "I think that would be very good for him." He pulled over a chair next to the bed and motioned Hinata to it. "If anything happens to Sasuke that makes you nervous, you press this button. Ok?" He pointed out the nurse call switch. "And someone will come to help. Got all that?" He patted her gently on the head as she nodded and moved toward the exit where he stopped. "Hinata-_chan_?"

Pale-lavender eyes turned away from Sasuke for a moment to address the older man. "_Hai_?"

"Next time you come to play with Ino-_chan_, use the front door. Ok?" Inoichi smiled at the shocked look on Hinata's face and then was gone.

Hinata turned back to Sasuke again and watched as he slept. She could see from the way his eyes moved under the lids that he was still dreaming, and from the way he jolted now and again it didn't seem like a pleasant dream. She reached out and took his hand into her own hoping to let him know somehow that he was safe. She squeezed his fingers gently, wondering how they had already become so much more calloused than her own when they trained together so often. She jerked to attention as she felt his fingers squeeze back and looked up just in time to see Sasuke's eyes flutter open.

"Hinata?"

His voice sounded so weak and raspy Hinata first thought she imagined it. "_Hai_, it's me Sasuke-_kun_." She could only look on confused as Sasuke pulled his hand away from hers and tried to move away from her but in his weakened state only managed to roll onto his side. "Sasuke-_kun_?"

"Go away…" Sasuke's voice was weak but there was anger clearly heard beneath it. "Just go away…leave me alone."

Shocked by his response, Hinata sat stone still in her chair. She bit at her lip and tried to keep control of her emotions so she didn't cry in front of him. He'd been through so much, she didn't want to cry and add to his trouble. That momentary attempt at control coupled with her inability to move from her chair would be a fateful moment that Hinata would always remember. She watched a familiar, unsteady, movement of Sasuke's back and understood why he wanted her to leave. Hinata would question for years where she got the courage to do what she did next.

Sasuke's eyes darted back as he felt the bed shift as though something had sat on his suddenly. His whole body locked a moment later as he felt the soft, warm arms wrap around him and pull him into a gentle embrace. "Hinata?"

"I think…" Hinata held him close and pressed her head against his back. "I think…this is one of those times…it's ok." She felt Sasuke's breathing become a bit more irregular. "I think this is one of those times…it's ok…for a boy to cry." She felt him shudder and knew the he was still fighting against what he really needed to do right now. "You…you promise…you wouldn't hold back on me anymore." That was all it took. Hinata could quite literally feel the dam burst wide as Sasuke sobbed into his pillow. She watched, fighting not to cry herself, as tears fell down his face. She couldn't do much for him and she had already failed her _nindo_ once tonight. She would do whatever it took to make him feel safe and be happy again. She held him close and let him cry as she lost all track of time.

OOOOO

Kushina sat down on the hospital floor down the hall from Sasuke's room next to her son. "I saw Inoichi as he was leaving. He thinks Sasuke is going to be ok."

Naruto looked up from where his head rested against his knees. "I saw him take Hina-_chan_ into Sasuke's room a few minutes ago. I think…their talking right now."

Kushina cast a perplexed look at her child. There was something bothering Naruto and for once Kushina couldn't quite read him. "Then why aren't you in there with them?"

"I'll go in, in a little while." Naruto clarified. "I just think it's better this way…for now."

"What do you mean?"

Naruto scrunched his face a little bit. "He'd get mad…if I saw him right now." He sighed heavily. "But it's different…since it's Hina-_chan_. I think…I'd be the same way if something happened to you or dad."

Kushina nodded slowly as she understood what Naruto was trying to say without betraying Sasuke. She draped her arm around her son's shoulders and pulled him to her to kiss him gently on the top of his head. Normally this would have gotten a struggle and some loud yells, but tonight he simply let it happen. "You're definitely my kid."

Naruto looked up into the blue eyes that mirrored his. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Kushina smiled. "Years ago, Sasuke's dad got hurt on a mission. Your father, somewhat to Fugaku's chagrin, considered Fugaku one of his best friends." She laughed lightly. "He rushed headlong into the hospital room worried about his friend, he didn't stop to consider what Sasuke's dad might want."

"Did Sasuke's dad get mad?"

Kushina nodded, but there was a smile to accompany it. "It was more embarrassment than anything else, but yes." She decided to continue quickly before Naruto could ask exactly what had happened that day. Hopefully there would be a few more years before she had to answer questions like that. "Me though? I always gave my friends and teammates some time before going to see them. That's why I said you're my kid."

They sat in silence for some time, mother and child, each in their own thoughts for what would happen to Sasuke now. Naruto's mouth opened to ask a question but was lost into the ether as a loud crash was heard down the hallway. Even as a young academy student Naruto's reflexes were quite fast and he was on his feet in a moment's time. "That came from Sasuke's room!"

OOOOO

It seemed that Sasuke had calmed, but Hinata knew that it was far from the truth. He was simply exhausted and his body could take no more. Hinata remembered how tired she used to be mornings after she cried herself to sleep. She could only guess how much more draining Sasuke's ordeal was. There was hope though, Sasuke had taken her hand while he cried and had yet to let go. She smiled, happy that she could give him that small comfort. The silent acceptance that hung in the room was shattered a moment later by a loud crash. Hinata turned her head and felt her heart ice over in fear. There at the door was the pink haired nurse from the desk with a meal tray lying amidst the spilled contents at her feet.

"You get away from him." The nurse hissed. "You get your filthy hands off of him you vile, conniving little…" She paused as she saw the tight grip the two children had at their hands. "You…get away from him!"

The next few seconds passed as a blur for Hinata. She saw the nurse crossing the room quickly towards her. Her face was contorted in pain and hatred, more so than anyone Hinata had ever remember seeing on someone. Her attention didn't last long on the nurses face though, instead going to the quickly raising hand. Hinata felt her body tense as that same hand began to fall. The next thing Hinata knew she was being spun and Sasuke was above her.

Sasuke's arms went to a dual high block out of sheer force of habit from all his training and stopped the nurse's strike. His eyes were puffy, red, and decidedly out of focus as he glared at the nurse. "I won't let you hurt her." He growled once. As fast as his body seemed to recover, his strength left him again and he fell back. "I won't let you hurt anyone else…"

Hinata caught Sasuke as he slumped into her arms. His eyes fluttered dangerously quick and his breathing was labored. "Sasuke-_kun_?" She shook him gently. "Sasuke-_kun_?!"

"What did you do to Sasuke and Hina-_chan_?!"

Hinata looked up as a familiar voice entered the room in an explosion of yellow and orange. "Naruto-_kun_! I think Sasuke-_kun's_ sick again!" Her attention moved to the door again as Kushina followed only a second behind Naruto. "Please help him!"

Kushina ran into the room and roughly knocked the nurse aside as she began to make hand seals. She placed her hands against Sasuke's forehead and chest as green healing chakra began to race down her arms and into Sasuke's body. After a few minutes Sasuke's breathing returned to normal but he remained unconscious. "Naruto, I want you to stay here with Sasuke-_kun_ and Hinata-_chan_." She pulled her hands away as the chakra faded. "Haruno-_san_ and I are going to go find Yamanaka-_san_ just to make sure Sasuke is all right."

Hinata felt ill as she learned the name of the nurse. "Haruno…Sakura-chan's mother?" She quickly swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat.

Kushina grabbed Haruno forcefully by the arm as she saw the look of hatred flare in the woman's green eyes and near dragged her from the room. Once Kushina felt she was far enough away from the room she slammed the pink haired nurse into the wall. Her eyes seemed made of ice and steel as she stared down the smaller woman. "If I ever, ever, see you raise a hand to either of my god-children again…" Her voice was low and full of deadly promise. "I will make Ibiki-_kohai's_ sessions look like walk through a field of flowers. Do you understand me?"

The nurse looked away and nodded slowly. "_Hai_…"

Kushina moved away from the other woman and lowered her gaze to the floor, not wanting to look at Haruno at the moment. "Go send for Inoichi. Get out of my sight before I forget you and I were good friends." She moved back down the hallway to the room that the children were in, but did not enter. She stayed just outside the door and watched them.

Sasuke was laid back against the pillow at the center of the bed. Hinata was in the bed as well just beside him, still holding his hand protectively, watching his sleeping face for any sign of further trouble. Naruto sat in the chair beside the bed and had a loose grip on Sasuke's other hand. Kushina could see Naruto's mouth moving and didn't have to read his lips to know he was telling Hinata that Sasuke would be ok.

Kushina didn't turn as she felt a pair of strong hands wrap around her waist. There was only one man who would even think of attempting such an act. "Did you get him?"

Minato shook his head. "We'll take about that later. How are they?"

"Only time will tell." Kushina intertwined her fingers in her husband's. "Everything changes from here."

Minato could only nod. Everyone always spoke of the greatness of being _Hokage_. No one told you that the failures hurt so much worse. His heart ached as he watched Naruto and Hinata follow after Sasuke into troubled slumber.

End

OOOOO

A/N: Hello again everyone! So, did you think of the chapter? If you have moment please leave a comment so I can try to improve future works. That said, I've come to realize a small problem namely teams and their Jounin-sensei. I thought I had it all worked out but now I'm not as sure. If there are any suggestions or advice please help me out because I need a little inspiration to smooth this out. (Translation: To make the next chapter.)

On a completely unrelated note, I'm trying to help someone promote fan based Negima!?: Magister Negi Magi RPG website. If anyone is at all interested you can find a link on my profile page. I encourage people to join as it can be quite fun and an excellent way to practice writing on the fly. That's all from me. 'Till the next, live well all.


	5. Chapter 4

A/N : Hey all. Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. Got very busy with school and life and such and I really couldn't spare the time to write. Though, on the plus side, this chapter is somewhat supersized to make up for the delay. Anywho, thanks for all the support people have given via review and PMs/email. Please enjoy this chapter.

Update: Ok, this is version 1.5. Due to a combination of auto-correct and my own inattentiveness there were a lot of mistakes in the previously released chapter. Many more than I truthfully like to admit. Hopefully I found most to all of them this time around. Many thanks to Sweet Heavens for letting me know so quickly so I could fix the problems.

OOOOO

Disclaimer: Um, gee, let me think…Do I own Naruto? No, no I don't.

OOOOO

Eyes Like No Other

Chapter Four

"Naruto! Wake the hell up!"

Hinata cringed as she saw the piece of chalk ricochet off Narrator's goggles with such force the boy was thrown backwards out of his chair. It had been an almost daily ritual for the last two years, but it still made Hinata flinch. Iruka-_sensei_ would begin class, Naruto would get bored and fall asleep, and then Iruka-_sensei_ would yell and hurl something at him with just below deadly force to wake the blonde back up again.

"_Itai_!" Naruto yowled in over dramatic fashion. "What the hell Iruka-_sensei_?"

"Don't give me that Naruto!" Iruka frowned at the boy. "If you really want to become Hokage some day you'll need to understand…"

"Understand that the _Shodaime_ and _Nidaime_ used the combination of _Mokuton Jutsu_ and _Suiton jutsu_ to grow and nurture the forest that Konoha uses as a natural defense mechanism." Naruto stated easily. "That is what we were just talking about right?" He grinned as he saw the look of disbelief on his teacher's face.

Hinata giggled slightly at the antics between the two. She was sure that Naruto got most of this information from his father, but how he knew what subject to go to every time still perplexed her and the class at large. Hinata suspected that Sasuke was giving him cues somehow, but was never able to pin anything down conclusively.

Iruka tapped his foot in annoyance. "All right then wise guy, since your so smart why don't you tell the class how they're going to be evaluated tomorrow for their _Gennin_ exam?" He grinned in challenge at his blonde student.

Hinata shook her head. "After two years…" She whispered. "You still haven't figured out that Naruto won't back down from a challenge?"

True to Hinata's prediction, Naruto grinned and nodded. "Ok Iruka-_sensei_! I will!" He jumped up from where he was still on the floor and stood on his desk so all the class could see him easily. It wasn't really clear if Naruto was unaware of the steam pouring from Iruka's ears or merely pretending not to notice. "This is how it works…"

Hinata half listened as Naruto began to explain. She had heard this before both from Neji and Naruto so she knew what to expect. There would be a written exam in the morning to test their content knowledge, and then there would be a practical exam in the afternoon to determine if they were physically prepared to be ninja.

Rather than listen to something she already knew again she began to look around the room at her fellow classmates. There were a lot of students she knew would not pass, their grades over the past years simply wouldn't allow for it. She felt bad for them knowing many had worked incredibly hard and it would end in disappointment for them. Her attention turned a moment later to the students she believed had the best chance of passing the exams.

Obviously at the top of the class were the two contenders for Rookie of the Year, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. Their averages were within just a few points of each other and it would come down to the final test to determine a winner. Though both boys worked equally hard training there were some slight differences between them. Naruto edged out Sasuke in the physical portions of class and training, due to his seemingly endless chakra Hinata suspected. Meanwhile Sasuke's dominance lay in the content knowledge and strategy ability. Not that the results surprised Hinata at all. Ever since that day, she had seen Sasuke spending more and more time reading.

However, whenever she tried to get him to tell her what he was studying he would roll up the scroll and hide it away. She chalked it up to something his parents had left him and did her best to respect his privacy, despite the nagging feeling that something was wrong. Hinata decided that the boys were like two sides of the same coin, blonde and boisterous verses dark and reserved, and there would be no trouble with them passing the exam.

Her eyes wandered again to a boy who was laughing loudly at the way Naruto was explaining the exam. The fact that she had discovered that he was the little brother of the Hokage's secretary made it that much easier for Hinata to remember who he was. As if the tattoos that shared his namesake and the cute, white puppy that was always with him wasn't enough. There was no doubt in Hinata's mind that Inuzuka Kiba, along with Akamaru, would become _Gennin_. Kiba wasn't the brightest of people, and sometimes his common sense was a little lacking, but not enough to hamper his skill as a ninja. He was also the second strongest person in the class physically and had an uncanny sense of smell that he could track anything by.

Hinata's mind wandered to memory of little over a year ago as she looked at Kiba. She, Sakura, and Ino had been having lunch when Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba had come over to join them. Hinata couldn't even remember how or why the subject came about, but Kiba thought it would be appropriate to regale them with a tale of how he'd seen a couple of the dogs in his family's kennels "go at it" while in heat. Needless to say, no one but Kiba ate lunch that day.

The fact that the girls had had a very long and animated, if misinformed, conversation on that topic remained a secret from the boys to this day.

Coming back to the present she found herself looking at someone who she secretly hoped she would not be put on a team with. The boy was the only one who consistently beat Naruto in a race to fall asleep in class. Hinata had worked with the boy on group projects in the past and knew he was very smart, but she was the one that was forced to do all the work because he was too lazy. He'd easily beat Naruto and Sasuke both for the Rookie of the year position if he didn't slack off all the time. Hinata's final opinion was that he would be far to "troublesome" a person to have as a teammate, but Nara Shikamaru would pass…somehow.

With him would come his best friend, and seemingly shadow, Akimichi Choji. Hinata remembered the first time she had sparred against the boy. _Jyuuken_ without chakra was not exactly a worthwhile endeavor when you faced the strongest person in your class who was solidly built to boot. Despite that seemingly inhuman toughness he possessed, Hinata had learned the hard way that he had a relatively thin skin.

She hadn't meant it as an insult either. It was just an off hand muttering she made in the midst of their fight. She had said something to the effect of "hitting him is like hitting a side of beef". Choji took it as her calling him fat. She had remembered seeing a very large hand coming at her, and then she was waking up in the infirmary. She didn't get within an arm's reach of the boy for two weeks and still was very careful to watch her mouth around him.

Then there was the boy that no one seemed to really know anything about. Hinata had thought at one time that he was like her. He always kept to himself, and his face was hidden behind the blackest glasses she had ever seen and the high collar of his coat. Trying to get to know him proved…interesting. He'd refused to talk to her at first, walking away numerous times at her attempts. Just as Hinata was about to give up on the boy all together something strange had happened.

One evening at home Hinata had had to "rescue" her little cousin Hanabi from a very large spider that had somehow gotten into the bedroom. Unlike most of the girls her age, Hinata didn't have a fear of bugs. Rather than grabbing the nearest slipper to squash the defenseless arachnid, Hinata had taken a sheet of paper and gently scooped it up. Under Hanabi's frightened, yet curious, watch Hinata had opened the window and let the spider climb down its web string to a small tree below them.

The next day the boy came up to her and told her she was a good person. They hadn't really spoken much since that day aside from what was needed for school projects. Hinata couldn't explain why, but she knew that Abram Shino would pass the exam.

Then there was Sakura and Ino, her best friends after Naruto and Sasuke. Ino was surprisingly talented with both _ninjutsu_ and _taijutsu_. Out of all the girls in the class Ino had the highest proficiency in hand to hand combat and mid range combat. You would also think that since she was from a family which specialized in mental espionage she would have an equally developed mind. This however didn't seemed to be Ino's case at all as her paper test scores were barely passing.

At the flip side was Sakura who was reasonably skilled in _ninjutsu_. Hinata had over heard from the teachers talking that Sakura also showed promise in _genjutsu_. Though she had those limited strengths, Sakura had the lowest win percentage in spars and the worst accuracy rating with shuriken and kunai practice. Her true strength was the content and theory of the ninja world. To Hinata, it seemed that Sakura needed only look at a textbook once and she instantly understood the subject no matter how hard it was to everyone else.

Hinata shook her head as she watched Sasuke finally get fed up with Naruto's antics and kicked him off the desk. Not about to let someone get the better of him Naruto jumped back up on the desk and crouched low to glare at Sasuke eye to eye. A moment later Naruto was jostled by another classmate, and Hinata finally understood why Ino and Sakura liked that certain genre of manga.

"Hinata."

Hinata turned as she heard Shino's voice from behind her. "_H-hai_?" She took the handkerchief the bespectacled boy offered her. "_Nani_?"

Shino fixed his glasses, and for once looked visibly uncomfortable. "There is some…" He cleared his throat and attempted to regain his composure. "There is some blood on you lip."

Hinata quickly covered her nose with the small cloth. "_Arigatou…Shino-kun_…" She thanked him quietly as she dabbed the blood away. Looking around she noticed that nearly all the girls in class were in similar states.

Iruka also noticed the state of his class. The boys, minus a certain two, were laughing hysterically and falling out of their chairs, while the girls were about to pass out from blood loss. "Get out of here." He sighed. "Take the rest of the day off to prepare for your exams tomorrow. Not like you're going to listen to anything I have to say now anyway…"

"Seriously?" Kiba was already half out of his seat by the time the _chunking_ nodded. "Nice!" He grinned at Naruto and Sasuke devilishly. "If I had known this would get us out of class I'd have bumped the two of you into each other a long time ago!"

Hinata laughed lightly as Kiba ran from the room, laughing his head off, with Naruto and Sasuke in hot pursuit. She stood slowly from her desk and looked around the room carefully as it emptied out. "I can't say I had the best of times here, but it wasn't all bad either." She whispered. "After tomorrow, I'll never see this room again." The thought that she'd be a ninja this time tomorrow made her smile grow just a bit. "I can't wait."

OOOOO

Hinata wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand and stared at the training tarp she had tied around the tree. If her labored breathing wasn't enough to convince her that she had worked hard enough for one day, the bloodstained handprints on the white canvas cover were. She looked down at her bleeding fingers, and oddly enough, she smiled. "It's almost there…"

"What's almost there?"

Hinata spun and fell into a defensive back stance with her hands raised high at the sound of the voice. She relaxed a moment later. "You scared me Neji-_nii-san_."

Neji leaned against a nearby tree with his arms crossed over his chest. "It's not like I was trying to hide my presence." He responded with a small smirk. "You should pay better attention to your surroundings."

Hinata pouted, slightly annoyed. Naruto and Sasuke would smirk like that sometimes, but Hinata found it much more irritating when it came from Neji. Perhaps it was because she'd seen it so many times when she lost their sparring matches. "I didn't think I needed to be so wary in our own backyard." She retorted weakly.

Neji shrugged. "Well, my senses improved once I started going on missions. Your senses probably will too." He walked over to where Hinata's target was hung. "So what were you doing anyway?"

Hinata watched her cousin's face as he studied the aftermath of her training. "I don't have the same level of control that you do, so I've been working on getting my chakra flow better." She tugged on the pull string attached to the tarp causing it to fall and reveal the tree underneath. "It's not quite there yet, but it's better than before." She smiled at her accomplishment.

Neji stared at the numerous dents and pockmarks in the trunk of the tree. The bark of the tree was peeled away and had the consistency of ash while the core held the bulk of the scars from so much chakra being poured into it in an unnatural fashion. If he was to relate the tree to the human body, the tarp would have been the skin while the bark was the muscle just beneath and the core would have been the major internal organs. Neji shuddered at the implications. "You…you've certainly come a long way…"

Hinata beamed at her cousin's words, simply because she did not hear the nervous timbre behind his praise. Nor did she notice the worried look in his eyes. "_Hontou-ni?_ That makes me really happy to hear you say that."

Neji nodded. "Yeah…" He shook his head as if something was troubling his mind. "Your test is tomorrow. Will you pass?"

Hinata pushed her fingers together out of force of habit. "I've been training really hard with Naruto-_kun_ and Sasuke-_kun_, and you and Hanabi-_Chan_ as well." Hinata explained. "I've also been studying a lot on my own so…I think I'll pass."

Neji nodded. "Confidence goes a long way though Hinata. If you only think you'll pass practice until you're certain you'll pass." His eyebrow twitched a little. "Just look at that teammate of mine. He can't use anything but _taijutsu,_ but he believes in himself so much he was able to become a ninja despite that."

Hinata looked down at the ground and considered her cousin's words. "Ok." Her voice was resolute as her head lifted again. "I'm going to go train some more. Could you tell Hizashi-_touu-san_ I might be late getting home tonight?"

Neji nodded in agreement. "I believe he has meetings until late tonight in any case. You'd likely not see him anyway, but I will tell him." He turned to head back to the main house. "Rest is also important. Don't exhaust yourself before tomorrow."

"_Hai_!" Hinata waited until she lost sight of Neji and then re-hung the training tarp. An hour passed as she continued to refine her chakra control for _Jyuuken_. Then two. Then three. She only stopped when she heard the sickening crack of overstressed wood. Only barely did she leap out of the way as she realized that the tree was about to fall on her. She wiped her bloody hands on the ground and stared at her handiwork. "Almost there…" She smiled despite the pain in her hands and the fatigue in her arms from so many strikes. "I wonder what those two are up to?"

Despite the state of her arms, her legs were still fresh and allowed her to run easily through the forested portions of her backyard. Recalling what she knew from class the pumped some chakra into her legs and vaulted over the white, stone wall that surrounded the Hyuuga compound. She swallowed nervously as she saw how high up she was. It would seem she needed to practice regulating chakra through more than just her hands.

She ran to the training spots that Naruto and Sasuke frequented most, but found all of them to be empty. "I know they wouldn't be slacking off the day before a big exam." She frowned in thought at where the boys could be and ran off towards Naruto's house, thinking they went there to rest.

Hinata knocked on the door and attempted to peer into the windows, but it seemed that no one was home. She crouched down and leaned against the outside wall of the house. "Where could they have gone?" In the end, Hinata could only think of one more place that they might be. The trouble was, she hated going to that place, it made her skin crawl. With a heavy sigh she rose and began to run towards her destination.

The large white walls were cracked in places and the paint was faded and chipped. The once bright red roofing tiles had become a dull pink under the twin effects of the sun and the years of weathering. The sturdy doors, which had been a source of pride, now hung loose and were pockmarked. Hinata pushed on one of the doors gently and shuddered as it creaked loudly to give her entry. She swallowed heavily as she began to walk down the streets.

There was a time these streets were like all the others in Konoha. Solid and firmly pounded down by the many people who had walked them. Now they stood empty. The years of disuse had allowed the dirt to soften and dust was kicked up with every step she took. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Hinata knew her Aunt would be furious with her for tracking so much dirt into the house later this evening. For now however, she was focused on finding two of the few people who would even think of coming into this place. It didn't take her long. She didn't even need her bloodline to search him out, all she had to do was walk quietly and eventually Hinata heard faint sounds coming through the empty Uchiha District. She smiled at him as they discovered each other's presence.

There was something off about the way he looked at her as he came out of the small shrine. A look of worry, or maybe guilt, Hinata couldn't quite put her finger on it. He had that "hand caught in the cookie jar" look that she hadn't seen on him in years, but it vanished so quickly behind his usual disinterested look that she almost thought she had imagined it. She smiled at him despite the fact that her stomach seemed to have learned how to do back flips. "Hello Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke nodded slowly. "How come you're here? I thought you and Naruto would be training together at this point."

Hinata blinked in surprise. "I thought you and Naruto would be training. That's why I came here when I didn't find anyone at his house."

"Hn." Sasuke's reply came with his usual smirk. "That _dobe_, must still be getting his fill of ramen."

Hinata's head tilted to one side at the comment. It wasn't unusual for Naruto to stop at their "favorite" local spot and have a couple of bowls before he headed home, but there was something in the way Sasuke said it this time. "Kushina-_okaa-san_ usually limits his allowance so he can't eat to much though."

"She was the one who took him to go eat." Sasuke explained with a shake of his head. "When she found out that we had the afternoon off she said we should go out for lunch." A small, sad, smile turned his lips for a moment. "Something about how there wouldn't be as much time once we became ninja tomorrow." The smile vanished as fast as it had come and eyes seemed to harden just a little. "But, I wasn't hungry, so I decided to go train instead."

Hinata did her best to pretend not to notice Sasuke's little tells. She knew it must still hurt a bit to see Naruto so close with his parents when he couldn't really share in things like that anymore. Instead she smiled at him. "That sounds about right then, you chose to train, Naruto chose to gorge on ramen." She clasped her hands in front of her and walked up to Sasuke. "Did your training go well?"

Sasuke took a small step back as Hinata approached. "Somewhat." He turned and motioned for her to follow as he began to walk in the direction of his house. "There are a lot of things that were left behind. I can't understand everything yet, but I am making some progress."

Hinata nodded understandingly. She had it a little easier now that she could ask her cousin and her uncle about her training, but she still remembered that first year quite well. The year she couldn't ask anyone for fear of the elders' reactions and had been forced to teach herself so very slowly. "It must be difficult to teach yourself all these things. I know it's not the same thing, but couldn't Kakashi-_sempai_ help you since…"

"He's not of Uchiha blood." Sasuke interrupted quickly, though he didn't turn to face Hinata. "He wouldn't know of these things, so it would be pointless to ask him." He glanced sideways and saw that Hinata still had a concerned expression on her face. "Besides, it's a rather useless course of action at this point since I still can't use my Sharingan."

That was unfortunately true Hinata was forced to agree silently. Everything both she and Naruto had done to try and help Sasuke awaken his bloodline had been in vain. "Perhaps we should try one more time before our tests tomorrow, maybe we'll discover something this time."

Sasuke just shook his head as they came to his home. He bit his thumb, drawing a small amount of blood, and pressed it against the door jam. A second later something could be heard dispelling inside and he was able to open the door. "That would be a waste of time as well. We know each other's moves in all their combinations. We are simply no longer a threat to one another. My Sharingan won't awaken under those conditions."

Hinata bit her lip. Sasuke didn't know what she was really capable of if she didn't hold back, but she wasn't about to risk his life over such a little thing as a bloodline. It was better to let him think as he did now. "I guess you're right." She admitted softly as she followed him inside.

"Tea?" The boy asked as he led them into the kitchen.

"Yes, please." Hinata nodded. "Can I help with anything?"

Sasuke shook his head. "And risk Naruto's mom finding out I had a guest in my home and then put them to work? No thanks." He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a few sealed packages of food. "I hope _tonkatsu_ are ok."

Hinata shook her head. "I only came to visit. You don't have to cook for me. That's not…"

"I eat alone enough Hinata." Sasuke replied as he unwrapped the leftovers. "I'd prefer the company."

Hinata felt her cheeks warm just a little. "_Hai_, I'll join you then." She moved to the cabinets as she watched him put the food into the oven. "I'll set the table."

"I said…"

Hinata shook her head at the boy. "If I'm going to eat with you, I will help prepare and clean up after as well. It's only proper."

Sasuke sighed. "Fine, do what you want."

The next few minutes passed in silence as neither of the children like having their ways questioned. As Hinata set the table she couldn't stop her mind from wandering. She'd always felt alone in her own clan, outside her uncle and two cousins, but there were always people around. The servants would do things if she asked them, albeit grudgingly in some cases, but Sasuke…he really had no one. Naruto's family tried to incorporate him as much as they could, but Sasuke always kept them at arms length. Hinata's uncle tried to extend a friendly hand to the boy because of their metal clan agreements, but Sasuke would only bow his head and refused to take Hizashi's hand.

As they waited for the food to finish warming up Hinata found herself wishing that Naruto were with them. He'd know what to do. He'd say something to break the silence. Make a joke, an insult, anything. He'd even ask about clan secrets if it came down to it. All were things Hinata wished she could do to distract Sasuke from his sour mood, but she couldn't.

"How did your training go?"

Hinata jerked slightly at the sound of his voice. "It went well actually. I've gotten a lot better thanks to everyone's help." She smiled remembering Neji's comments. "I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm better than I've ever been in terms of control."

Sasuke nodded as he pulled the warmed food from the oven. "So you can use chakra in your strikes now?" He smirked as he saw Hinata look away quickly. "I guess that's a no."

Hinata frowned slightly. "I guess we both have things to work on."

"Seems that way." Sasuke frowned as well as he portioned out the pork cutlets on the two plates. "At this rate, the fish cake is going to leave us in the dust." He poured the tea and sat down grumpily. "He's the one without a blood line, how is it that he's advancing so much more than we are?"

Hinata sipped her tea and smiled softly. "It just seems that way. You've gotten a lot stronger too Sasuke-_kun_."

Sasuke's head picked up quickly and he stared at Hinata. "How can you say that? I still don't have…"

"The _Sharingan_ is just a tool Sasuke-_kun_." Hinata set her cup down and pointed to her own eyes. "Everyone in my clan is born with the same eyes, but we all learn how to use them at different times. You'll get it when the time is right." She picked up her chopsticks and began to eat. "You're food is going to get cold." The moments passed quietly as they ate. Then something Hinata hadn't expected happened.

"Thanks Hinata."

Hinata found herself simply nodding. They ate in silence and when the meal was complete she helped Sasuke wash the dishes. She bowed to him and thanked him for the meal before he walked her to the door.

"Hey, Hinata."

She turned as he held the door open for her. _"Hai_?"

Sasuke looked a little uncomfortable for a moment. "Good luck tomorrow."

Hinata nodded with a shy smile. "Good luck to you too Sasuke-_kun_." She giggled a little. "Not that you'll really need it."

Sasuke smiled. "Good night." He waited until Hinata was out of sight before he closed the door and leaned back against it. He fell into a sitting position and let his head fall forward. His fist shot out and punched a hole into the wall beside him. Holding his head in his hands, uncaring about his bleeding knuckles, he did the only thing he felt he could at the moment. "Damn you…"

OOOOO

"Hina-_chan_!"

Hinata turned as she heard Naruto's voice. "There you are, I was looking for you before."

Naruto grinned. "Yeah, I have that effect on people." He fell into step along side her. "So where did you go to look for me? I was looking all around for you too."

"When I couldn't find you at your house I went to Sasuke's." She explained. "I thought you'd be training with him over there."

"I would have, but Mom wanted to take us out to lunch since we had a half-day." Naruto linked his hands behind his head as they walked. "We both tried to get him to come, but…"

Hinata nodded. There was an unspoken agreement that they didn't talk about Sasuke's thoughts, but she knew what Naruto meant. "Once we get put on teams, I think he'll be better. Like a surrogate family to keep him out of that empty house more often."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. It just sucks that the three of us can't be on the same team together."

"It can't be helped." Hinata spoke quietly. "You and Sasuke are the top two student in the academy, and I'm the highest ranked _kunoichi_." She shook her head. "Even if that wasn't the case, they're not going to make a team that has the son of a Hokage, the last of the Uchiha clan, and an member of the Hyuuga clan."

Naruto sighed. "Yeah, I know, it's to much of a concentration of power and we'd be a prime target for attacks by other nations who want to steal Konoha's secrets." He kicked a stone that was along the street. "But you never know, if not enough people pass, we may end up together anyway."

Hinata shook her head. "The way I see it, there will be just enough for three full teams at least. So our chances are pretty small."

The blond frowned. "I know…I was just hoping you didn't." He paused his walk and looked up at the sky. "Hey, if one of us do get on a team with him, we have to look after him extra careful."

"Of course." Hinata agreed. "There's no need to tell me something like that." She turned as she realized Naruto had fallen back. "Naruto-kun?" She shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably as he watched her with an intensity she hadn't seen in him before. "_N-nani kore_?"

Naruto seemed to snap out of a trance of some kind, smiled, and shook his head. "_Betsuni_." He looked up at the position of the sun and his face fell a little. "It's already that late? Mom's going to kill me!" He turned and began to run off, but turned around so he could face Hinata as he moved. "We're going to go get new gear after the exam tomorrow! So don't make any plans!"

Hinata blinked a little and tilted her head to one side, but nodded all the same. As Naruto vanished from sight she turned and continued to walk home. "They're both acting weird today."

OOOOO

Hinata sat on one of the benches outside the school and ate her lunch slowly. The test had been pretty much what Hinata had expected in most respects. There were a few questions she knew she got wrong, but they shouldn't be enough to keep her from passing. Hinata jumped as someone suddenly sat down beside her. At first she had thought it was Naruto, but a simple glance showed it to be the other blonde resident of their class.

Ino's face was molded into a clearly unhappy pout. "That test was ridiculous!"

Hinata smiled and offered Ino one of her rice balls. "It wasn't that bad. I told you I'd help you study if you wanted." She giggled a little. "You were the one who chose to go oogle at Naruto and Sasuke while they trained." She turned as she heard a small gasp.

Sakura stood just a foot away, and there was a clear blush on her face. "Who's oogling who now?"

Hinata laughed and slid over on the bench to make room for their other friend. "Nothing, nothing." Hinata shook her head, knowing how easily Sakura got flustered. "What did you think of the test?"

"Like you even have to ask that question." Ino grumbled around her rice ball. "Forehead over there was done in ten minutes and got excused." She glared at the pink haired girl. "Did you even have to read the questions!?"

Sakura turned her nose up in the other direction. "I can't help it if you have the memory and computing power…" She turned quickly to face Ino. "Of a pig!"

Ino jumped to her feet. "What the hell'd you call me pinky?"

"You heard me you blonde bimbo!" Sakura also jumped to her feet.

Hinata sighed as she watched her two friends attempt to stare each other down. She could practically see the lightening flashing between their eyes. "Does it really matter? We've been over this before…"

"Shut up Whiskers!" Both girls tuned and spoke at once.

Hinata smiled and laughed. It had been slower in coming about than Sakura's and Ino's nickname, but she had gotten one of her own as well. The girls were often together, and it was something of bonding means more than anything, but only with Sakura and Ino. Some random villager had called her Whiskers, and Ino and Sakura had both beat the man up to the point he had to run away. "We all know I'm going to out perform the both of you in the end."

Ino smirked. "Says you. This is my day."

"Yeah." Sakura agreed. "This time we'll be at the top of the list over you." They were all silent for moment seeming to glare at each other, before they broke out into a fit of laughter.

"I take it the test has been going well then?"

Hinata spun quickly at the sudden entrance of the familiar voice. "Neji_-onii-san_? What are you doing here?"

"Sensei gave us the afternoon off for personal training since we did three missions yesterday." The Hyuuga boy sighed. "I can't wait to be done with D-ranks. If I wanted to pull weeds, I'd tend my own garden." He shrugged and shook his head. "I was walking past and heard your voice so I thought I'd stop by."

Hinata smiled and blushed slightly. "Y-you didn't have to. You're already a _gennin_ you should use your free time to do things you want to do."

"And I am." Neji replied calmly. "If I didn't want to stop, I wouldn't have."

"Oi! You three! Lunch is almost over! Get back to the class room for the second part of the test!"

"_Hai Mizuki-sensei_!" Ino called back. "Sorry, got to cut this short."

Neji nodded. "I understand. Good luck to all of you."

Hinata smiled and turned to walk back to the classroom. She jumped slightly as she felt someone pat her on the back. She turned again, surprised to see Neji's hand on her shoulder. He rarely came in contact with her unless it was during sparring.

Neji smiled. "You're to tense. Relax, you'll do fine."

Hinata smiled. "_Hai_! Thank you Neji-_onii-san_!"

Neji watched as his little cousin ran off. Once she was out of sight he turned and began to walk away. He didn't make it far before he vomited into the bushes. He wiped his mouth, but remained crouched on the road a few minutes more. "_Gomen…gomen nasai_…"

"What are you apologizing for?"

Neji looked up at the familiar face framed by the brown hair tied up in buns. "Ten-ten?"

The weapon's mistress bent down and studied her teammate's face worriedly. "You sick? I'll tell Sensei if you are. You shouldn't go on today's mission if you're not feeling well."

Neji shook his head and stood up. "No, I'm fine." He turned and began walking off at a quick pace. "I need to keep myself occupied right now anyway."

OOOOO

"Ok Hinata. This is the final portion of the exam."

Hinata nodded quickly, her hands turning white they were clasped so tight together. "_Hai Iruka-sensei_!"

The scarred shin obi smiled kindly. "Relax Hinata. You've done very well, and this final test is nothing you haven't seen before."

The young Hyuuga ran through the options in her mind. They'd worked on _kawarimi, henge, _and_ bunshin_ in class. She wasn't the greatest at _kawarimi_, but she could do it if she had to. "_Hai_!"

"Ok, for your final test, I'd like you to make three usable bunshin in front of Mizuki-_sensei_ and I." Iruka explained. "You can make more if you'd like, but no less than that number. Do you understand?"

Hinata nodded, and gave a mental cheer for her luck. She'd be a shinobi in moments. "_Hai_! I'll begin now!" She centered herself and began to move her hands through the three seals she needed. She felt her chakra begin to move through her body, but it felt unfamiliar for some reason. She pushed it from her mind as simple test anxiety. Naruto and Sasuke were waiting. So were Ino and Sakura. Even Neji had wished her luck. She wasn't going to let them down. "_Bunshin no jutsu_!" The room filled with smoke produced from the excess chakra release. She didn't even have to wait for the cloud to dissipate. She could feel that it had gone wrong. Her mind raced with "why's" and "how's" that she couldn't answer, but she knew it was wrong.

Iruka stared dumbfounded at the results of Hinata's jutsu. It lay on the ground like a cheap carnival toy, poorly colored and lifeless. The blank eyes of the single _bunshin_ she'd produced looked up at them vacantly. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he reached for his clipboard with the grade sheet.

"Wait!" Hinata pleaded. "I can do it! Really! Naruto-_kun_ and Sasuke-_kun_ helped me with this technique! I know I can do it!" She ran through the seals again, but her chakra refused to move as she told it to. She stared down at the newest creations.

"Well…" Began Mizuki. "She did make three this time."

Iruka shook his head sadly. "She has to be held to the same standards as everyone else who took the test. Besides…" He looked at Hinata and smiled apologetically. "Hinata if you went out into the field without a good handle on your skills you could get seriously hurt."

"Come on." Mizuki sighed. "She's going to be doing D's for at least a year. She'll have time to develop her skills before anything big comes her way. You really want to do this to someone of her clan."

Hinata froze. She wanted to become a ninja more than anything. For her friends. For herself. For her nindo. Not because she was simply a Hyuuga who got special treatment.

"I've never made a decision on my students based on such things." Iruka shot Mizuki a warning look. "I don't intend to start now." His expression softened as he returned his attention to Hinata. "I'm sorry Hinata…"

"_Wakarimashita_." Hinata bowed deeply from the hips. She understood his reasons and respected them, but she also did it to hide the tears in her eyes. "I will send the next student in." Before he could say anything more she turned and ran for the door. She paid no mind to the startled cries of her classmates as she burst through the doors and ran off into the streets of Konoha.

OOOOO

Hinata watched from the shadows, something she was good at. All the parents were there outside the school. She couldn't understand why she had come back. All she was doing was torturing herself, but she could think of nowhere else to go right now. Her attention diverted as the main doors suddenly burst open and all the recently graduated cadets, the new _gennin_, came out to proudly show off their new _hitai-ate_.

Her attention focused of course on her friends most. She watched as Ino's dad picked her up in a bone crushing hug, causing Ino to scream about ruining her clothes. Sakura's mom bent down to give Sakura a much more gentle hug, and for some reason the older woman was crying while Sakura looked more than a little upset. Naruto's parents both were smiling brightly. Kushina kissed Naruto on the forehead, while Minato grabbed the boy in a headlock to ruffle his hair. Sasuke stood off to the side, attempting to look indifferent, but failed as a small smirk appeared on his lips. The image further fell away as Minato turned to grabbed the reserved Uchiha up in a headlock of his own.

Hinata knew she should go and congratulate her friends, but it hurt too much. She'd let them all down. She'd go to them later.

"Iruka-_sensei_ can be kind of a hard nose once and awhile. Can't he?"

Hinata jumped from her hiding place, her bloodline activating by sheer instinctive habit. "Mizuki-_sensei_?" That explained why she hadn't decocted him, she wasn't going to catch a _chunin_. "Is something the matter?"

Mizuki nodded. "Yeah, you didn't pass." He sighed. "You've done well all through the academy. Doesn't seem fair to fail you altogether just cause you tripped at the finish line."

Hinata nodded sadly. "But there's not much I can do about that now is there…"

"Actually…"

Hinata's head jerked around rapidly to focus on her teacher. Did she dare hope there was a way for her to graduate as well? "Actually?"

Mizuki smiled, though there was a cold edge to it. "It isn't well known, but there's a secondary test, just for occasions like this." He grinned as he saw her latching onto every word like it was her only lifeline. "It's harder, that's a certainty. Are you still interested?"

Hinata nodded her head as her face set in determination. She wouldn't fail her nindo a second time. "I'll do whatever I have to do. Please tell me Mizuki_-sensei_."

OOOOO

Hinata waited outside his office, hidden in the shadows and behind one of those curtains that adapted to the surroundings that she'd borrowed from Naruto. The whole premise of the test seemed absurd to her. How was a failed academy student supposed to out match the Hokage and obtain a hidden scroll? Every instinct told Hinata that this test was bogus, but perhaps that was part of it. There would be missions that would seem absolutely impossible, but she'd have to attempt them anyway. She cleared her thoughts as she heard the door to Minato's office click open.

She watched him carefully as he moved toward Hana-_onee-chan's_ desk. As Hinata had predicted, Minato's sweet tooth was the only weak point she'd be able to exploit. Her hands were sweaty as she waited for the exact moment to spring her trap.

Minato for his part, was well aware of Hinata's presence. He couldn't find Naruto or Sasuke though. Perhaps it was a trick of some sort? Naruto did love his pranks, and Hinata was the most obvious choice for them to use as the distraction. He smiled as he opened the drawer to Hanna's candy stash.

Hinata didn't think twice as she pulled the trigger string, causing the sleep bomb she'd planted there to explode in the Hokage's face. She ran to his slumped body and quickly checked his pulse. "Good, I got the mix right. He's only asleep, I didn't poison him." She didn't want to think about how much Naruto and Kushina would hate her if she accidently killed Minato. Grabbing him under the shoulders, Hinata dragged him back into the office so his body wouldn't be discovered. "Heavy…" She muttered as she finally got him in place and closed the door.

Activating her _Byakugan_, Hinata began phase two of her plan. It took only a moment to find the mass of chakra that signaled a _genjutsu_ that hid scroll vault. Her hands ran through the seals as she stared at the illusion. "_Kai!_" She blinked as the illusion remained firmly in place. "Ok…now what…" A few moments of thought lead to another, dangerous, idea. "_Jyuuken_ disrupts chakra flow in the coils…so it should…" She dropped easily into her opening stance and stared at the hidden vault. "Too little, and nothing will happen. To much and I'll cause an explosion that brings the ANBU. Have to get it right the first time." She whispered as she brought her arm back. "From the center, through the coils, down the arm, and out the palm…"

There was a momentary ripple in the air where her palm had landed, and the vault suddenly came into being. Hinata blinked. "I did it?" She smiled and nearly jumped for joy. "I did it." Shaking her head she quickly moved into the vault and found the scroll she was looking for. "It would have to be the largest one…" She strapped the scroll to her back and moved back to the main room towards the window. She looked back over to where Minato was still sleeping. "_Gomen nasai-yo_." With that, she turned and leapt full speed out of the room and into the forest.

As soon as she left, the sleeping Minato disappeared in a burst of smoke. The wall appeared to move as the camo-screen was lowered revealing the real Minato. "She's definitely spending to much time with Naruto…" He mused. "If not for a _kawarimi_ and a _kage bunshin_ she'd have gotten me." He moved over to the window that she had used to leave. "But Hinata…what are you trying to prove? I know you want to be a _kunoichi_, but why do this?"

OOOOO

Hinata lay on her back panting as she tried to regain her breath. "I'll prove I can do it Iruka-_sensei_." She spoke to the evening sky. "I'll prove it to you, and then you'll have to let me become a shinobi like Naruto-_kun_ and Sasuke-_kun_."

"Oi! Hina-chan!"

Hinata bolted upright as she heard that all to familiar voice. "He can't find me! Mizuki-_sensei_ said that I have to remain hidden until he comes with Iruka-_sensei_ to grade me." She started to get up and rewrap the scroll when she heard another voice.

"Hinata! Where are you? You're being annoying now! Just come out!"

"Sasuke-_kun_ too?" Hinata cursed her luck. She might be able to hid from one or the other, but both at once? She had to find a place to hide, somewhere protected from their eyes, but where? She spotted a tree that had fallen over from rotting from the inside out. Far from ideal, but it would work. Shoving the scroll inside she quickly worked herself in after it. She held her breath as a flash of orange and yellow raced past where she had been only a moment before.

"You're still slow you know."

Hinata jumped, hitting her head on the rotted wood, as she heard the voice from above her. She held her hands over her new bump and glared at Sasuke as he leaned down over the top of the log to peer in at her. "How'd you know?"

Sasuke shrugged and rolled himself off the log. "You're good at hiding." He helped Hinata out of the log and then called out into the woods. "Oi! _Kamaboko_! She's over here!"

Naruto ran back toward his friends, and promptly punched Sasuke in the face. "I told you not to call me that!" He turned to Hinata and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Do you know what the village is like because of you right now?"

Hinata blinked. "What are you talking about? I was only taking the test…"

"Test?" Naruto demanded. "What test? You stole the Konoha _kinjutsu_ scroll! Every ninja in the village is looking for you! You're being called a traitor!"

Hinata stepped back from the blonde's grasp. "But…but…Mizuki-_sensei_ said…"

Sasuke suddenly leapt up and tackled both his friends to the ground as a massively oversized shuriken whipped over their heads. "We've been found out!"

Hinata's _Byakugan_ was active before she even hit the ground. "M-Mizuki-_sensei_? What are you doing?"

"I don't know how you did it, but you managed to get through the Yondaime's security." Mizuki landed on a tree branch exposing himself to the three children. "Now, I'll take that scroll."

"Take the scroll? You said I had get the scroll and learn at least one technique from it to pass my _gennin_ exam!" Hinata looked between Mizuki and her friends. "That's what he told me! Honest!"

"We believe you Hinata." Sasuke stood up and moved in front of his friends to take up defensive position.

Naruto followed quickly. "Yeah, Hina-_chan's_ the most honest person I know. Which means you tricked her." He grit his teeth and glared angrily at Mizuki. "Why are you trying to get one of my friends in trouble?" He yelled angrily.

Mizuki smiled. "Cause she's the perfect fall. The village already hates her, well most of them anyway." He frowned at Naruto. "Of course you've been trying your best to ruin that part of my plan."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke demanded. "What did Hinata do to you? Why do you want that scroll anyway?"

Mizuki's smile faded. "What did she do to me? I could tell you, but she's going to kill you in a few moments anyway." His smile returned. "Or at least, that's what it'll look like. As for the scroll, I know a certain _Sannin_ who will pay very well for the secrets within it."

"You're the traitor!" Naruto's fist gripped tightly. "You think we're just going to let you get away with it? We're _gennin_ of Konoha now! We'll stop you!"

"You two have been _gennin_ a few hours, and she didn't even pass." Mizuki taunted. "Not that it would matter anyway, I outrank and out class you in everyway." His expression hardened. "Now give me that scroll."

"Not a chance." Sasuke muttered. "Hinata, get that scroll back to the Hokage. We'll hold him off."

Hinata shook her head. "I'm not leaving you two to face him alone."

"Hina-chan…" Naruto whispered. "I know you want to help, but if he gets that scroll…" He shook his head. "It won't be good for anyone. You're a Konoha shinobi just like us. The three of us have been a team before we even knew what that meant. So please…"

"Oh shut up." Mizuki rolled his eyes. "None of you are leaving here alive." He took the second shuriken that was strapped to his back and began to spin it rapidly in his hand. "Time to finish this." He let the weapon fly and leapt down out of the tree after it, moving in its shadow towards the three children.

Hinata barely realized what had happened by the time she had heard Sasuke scream. She hadn't even been aware of his movement as he had spun her out of the path of the spinning blades, earning a deep gash in his arm for his protection. Hinata heard Naruto's cry of pain next as she watched Mizuki slam his fist into the blonde's face.

Mizuki turned to the now quite frightened _kunoichi_. "Give me the scroll!"

Sasuke and Naruto were both up again in a moment's time. The Uchiha shoved Hinata back out of the traitorous teacher's reach while Naruto slashed at their former Sensei with a kunai, forcing him back on the defensive. The two boys turned and looked at Hinata at the same time. "Go!" They demanded.

Though deeply ashamed that she was leaving her friends in such a situation, Hinata honored their wish. Swinging the large scroll over onto her back she bolted from the clearing and into the forest. Tears ran down her cheeks as she could hear the cries of pain from her friends. She'd failed again. She'd failed her _nindo_, and her friends all over again in the same day.

"_There are two things to consider when on a mission_. _One is the importance of completing the mission itself. The other is maintaining the safety of your teammates. In the best cases, you'll be able to do both, but often you will have to choose one or the other. Everyone has a different opinion of which is the more important. In the end it will come down to what is more important to you."_

Hinata wheeled around abruptly as Iruka-_sensei's_ lecture surfaced in her mind. The people you cared for wouldn't be benefited by the mission's completion if they died along the way. Her mind returned to the conversation she had had with Naruto's father so long ago. "_Can I do what my father did? Can I protect Konoha too? Die protecting the people I care for?_"

_"Though I, and I think your father too, would rather you live to protect those you care for. It takes someone incredibly strong to sacrifice their life to protect another, but it takes even more strength to live and protect them repeatedly."_

_"Then that's what I'll do. I'll become strong for everyone and protect them. I'll protect the village, just like my father. I'll make that…"_

Hinata's _Byakugan_ activated at once as she burst into the clearing. Instantly she saw Naruto and Sasuke's prone forms with Mizuki standing over them. Strong as they might be, they were still two _gennin_ fighting a chunin. She reached into her hip pouch and hurled a salvo of kunai at her former instructor. Fortunately he didn't seem to realize that they were only the blunted training kunai and he leapt back from the attack. Hinata landed before her friends in a defensive _Jyuuken_ stance. "I won't let you hurt my friends. I won't go back on my _nindo_."

Mizuki laughed openly as Hinata made her almost whispered declaration. "Your _nindo_?" He continued to laugh even louder. "You don't have a _nindo_. You're not even a ninja!" His face twisted in a malicious, hateful, sneer. "And you won't ever be a ninja. You know why?"

Hinata didn't respond. Mizuki had already said he was planning to kill them, there was no point in arguing it more and would only serve to distract her. She could not have guessed that she was more wrong.

"You'll never become a shinobi, because the villagers would never allow it." Mizuki smirked. "Even if you are a Hyuuga, you're still that damned fox!"

It was only the numbing shock of the statement that kept Hinata from reacting to the older man's words. Everything made sense under that light. The comments, the glares, everything came into focus. Hinata was so distracted, she couldn't react as Mizuki dashed forward and brought a vicious knee strike into the girl's stomach. She screamed as she rocketed back from the attack and slammed into a tree. If not for the overly large scroll on her back to cradle her impact, Hinata had little doubt she'd be dead right now. She tried to protect herself and her cargo as she fell to the ground on her hands and knees.

"Not so tough are you now?" Mizuki walked up to the young _kunoichi_ and gave her a savage kick in her exposed ribs. "Damn _kitsune_…" He growled.

Hinata rolled with the kick and got to her feet as quickly as her injuries would allow. "I don't believe you…"

Mizuki paused a moment as he heard the fight still in her voice. "I really don't care if…"

"You taught us about using psychological tactics…" Hinata's gaze lifted to focus on her attacker. "It may be true, but it may also be a trick to distract me." She unstrapped the scroll from her back and set it down beside her. "But if it's true or not, I don't care. I'm not going to let you hurt my friends." She brought her hands up into a cross-shaped hand seal that she had not learned in the academy. "I won't let you betray my village. _Kage bunshin no jutsu_."

Mizuki looked around as nine plumes of smoke sprouted up around him on all sides. "_Kage Bunshin_? Not bad considering you couldn't make a normal _bunshin_ a few hours ago." He pulled a kunai from his hip pouch. "But that's still not enough for you to beat me."

"We'll see." Hinata, and her clones, replied icily as their hands began to move through a new set of seals. "_Ninpo: Kami Kizu no Hebi_."

Mizuki's eyes narrowed as he saw sickly looking green and black chakra twining about the multiple Hinata's hands. "What the hell kind of technique is that?" He smirked as she moved into the familiar opening stance of _Hyuuga Jyuuken_. "I've seen you fight in class. You never use chakra, you're a paper tiger."

Hinata's eyes narrowed slightly. "That doesn't matter…"

Mizuki's eyes shifted slightly as one of the clones behind him attacked suddenly. He spun and blocked the palm strike with his kunai, though he was not fast enough to avoid the chakra that wound around the blade and up his arm. Still, he smirked as he saw the clone vanish in a poof of smoke, with no apparent harm to himself. "See? You can't hurt me."

Hinata smirked as she saw her former instructor pause and grip at his arm. "I told you, that doesn't matter now."

Mizuki glared at her as his hand began to burn with intense heat and pain, even as his strength began to leave his hand. "Whatever it is, I won't let you do it again!" He switched his kunai to the other hand and rushed head long toward the original Hinata. "You die here and now demon!"

Hinata smiled as the kunai plunged into her chest and she grabbed his arms with both her hands. A moment later she proofed out of existence, with her attack already landed. Another clone moved in and palm struck his upper right thigh before she was knocked to the ground. Through the smoke of the dispersed clone another one dove and grabbed onto his left calf before a flailing attack managed to send her from existence.

Mizuki struggled to move as the points of contact began to heat and go numb. "You bitch…"

One of the Hinatas took advantage of his growing immobility and rushed forward into a diving leg sweep, introducing Mizuki to the dirt, face first. "Now!" The other Hinatas fell on the prone man at once, one at each arm and leg and another on his back to pin him down. Each made sure to let their chakra covered hands go full contact to his body. The final Hinata, the one that had slide tackled him, stood up and walked calmly to Mizuki's head. "It's over." The other Hinata's nodded and dispersed themselves.

Mizuki struggled, but was unable to move other than crane his neck to see Hinata standing over him. "What have you done to me?"

"My duty as a citizen of Konoha." Hinata replied. "You are a traitor to the village. The Hokage will decide your punishment…" She looked over to where Naruto and Sasuke were still unconscious. "You're not a danger to anyone anymore…" She turned and walked away to help her friends.

OOOOO

In the trees, three shinobi watch the scene unfold with mixed reactions.

"Did you see that?" Kushina asked.

Iruka blinked. "Is that…really Hinata-chan?"

Minato nodded slowly. "I knew she was capable but…" He shook his head. "Come on. She did well to hold her own, but she's spent now. She'll need medical care same as the boys." He leapt from the tree and into the clearing landing beside younger girl as she cradled the two boys heads in her lap. "Hinata-chan?"

Iruka remained in the tree, his mind still attempting to catch up with what his eyes had seen. "She…she couldn't even perform a _bunshin no jutsu_ earlier…" He shook his head in disbelief. "How could she learn not one, but two, techniques from the forbidden scroll in such a short time?"

"Because…" Kushina smiled. "She's Hinata-chan. She has always had the power, and the brains to know how to use it. She just needed something to push her to use it. Some catalyst to give her the ability to break past her shy exterior." Her smile faded a little. "Though it's a horrible thing to admit, if she isn't scarred by this experience, this is probably the best thing that could have happened for her."

Iruka blinked. "What do you mean?"

"She put her power to use." Kushina explained softly. "And not only that, she did it to protect her friends…and her village." She smiled knowingly over at the _chunin_. "An excellent quality in a _shinobi_ don't you think, _Sensei_?"

Iruka remained still a moment longer as Kushina bolted out of the tree and into clearing to help her husband with the children. "Yeah…" He admitted in a low whisper as he rubbed the scar on his nose. "Yeah, it is." As he leapt into the clearing he could hear Hinata sobbing softly.

"I…I wanted to…protect them…but I…I ran away." The girl cried. "I ran, and Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun were hurt because of it."

Kushina knelt down next to the girl and gently rubbed her back. "They're going to be just fine Hinata. A couple of bumps and bruises maybe." She smiled. "Not even that if they have one of the med-nin at the hospital treat them."

Hinata shook her head. "But I…"

"Hyuuga Hinata, come here." Iruka spoke calmly, but there was clearly a tone that would book no argument. He glanced sidelong at the Hokage and quirked his eyebrow a little bit. It was hard not to smile as he saw the blonde man nod. Iruka waited a moment longer until Hinata stood before him. "Hinata, do you know what could have happened if you had continued to run away?"

Hinata nodded weakly as her head fell forward, her eyes firmly locked on the ground.

"And did you know what could have happened and returned here and lost to Mizuki?"

Hinata nodded again, surprising the adults. "If I lost, we all could have died and…and Mizuki-_sen…_Mizuki would have taken the scroll. Then all of the village would have been in danger." Her fists gripped at her sides and her eyes screwed shut in frustration. "Even if the greater priority should have been getting the scroll to safety…I couldn't just leave them…" She gasped as she felt something cold press against her forehead. She jerked upright as she felt something wrap at the back of her head.

The sudden move surprised Iruka as he had tried to fasten the _hitai-ate_ to the girl's forehead, casing the over sized loop to fall down around Hinata until it rested at her neck. He considered moving it back, but watched as Hinata lightly traced the metal band of her new choker. "That's a good look for you Hinata-_chan_."

Kushina nodded in agreement. Though at the forehead was more traditional, Hinata's bangs would have hidden the little armor plate, making it harder for the other villagers to see she was now a graduate. This way, she would be able to show off her accomplishment in a tasteful way.

Hinata shook her head, not understanding what was happening. "What? Why did you do this?"

"Well," Iruka scratched the tip of his nose. "You see, sometimes, _shinobi_ are promoted in the field due to their skills or acts of bravery." He smiled warmly at Hinata. "From what I saw of your battle, you have the skills. You're choice to come back to save Naruto and Sasuke, speaks to your dedication to your teammates and friends. You're still an academy student, which means the Hokage can't give you any kind of recognition for this night." His smile almost faltered as he saw the look of defeat on Hinata's face. "But, since you're a student, you fall under my command."

Hinata looked up quickly as though someone had slapped her in the face. "You mean?"

Iruka nodded. "I, Chunin-Instructor Umino Iruka, hereby grant field promotion to Hyuuga Hinata and raise her rank to _Gennin_." He stopped as he saw that Hinata was looking at the ground again, and watched as she seemed to be crying. "Eh…Hinata-chan?" He was suddenly knocked to the ground as Hinata caught him in a surprisingly strong bear hug.

"Thank you…" She whispered over and over again. "Thank you so much _Sensei_."

Iruka just smiled and gently pat her back until she fell asleep from her emotional overload.

Minato smiled as he watched the scene. "This year's _gennin_…they're one hell of a bunch."

Kushina nodded. "That they are."

Minato looked over the various unconscious members of their little gathering. "Seems we're one short…" He began moving through a set of seals and then bit into his thumb just enough to draw blood. "_Kuchiyose no jutsu_!" As his palm hit the ground and the smoke cleared, a toad just slightly shorter than a man came into being. "I hate to ask this favor of you, but could you take that one to the hospital?" He pointed to Mizuki, who had long since passed out do to the pain of his injuries.

"Sure thing boss-man." The toad hopped beside the fallen silver haired man and wrapped him up in a long sticky tongue.

"And don't worry about being to gentle with him." Minato added, seemingly causing the toad to grin."

"Right-o boss-man!" With that the toad swallowed Mizuki, causing his belly to bulge out. He took a short leap towards the edge of the clearing, but his distended belly now hung lower than his legs. As a result his gut hit the ground first, absorbing most of the impact.

Kushina couldn't help but grin, albeit devilishly, as she heard a muffled groan of pain from Mizuki. "You going to give him to Ibiki-_kohai_?"

Minato shrugged. "We'll see." He picked up Sasuke as Kushina took Naruto and Iruka took Hinata. "What do you say we get these three home? They've had a long night." With mutual nods, the shinobi vanished from sight and sense to head home. There were many adventures ahead to prepare for.

End

OOOOO

A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As always, I appreciate any feed back people care to give be it good, bad, or otherwise. That said, please leave a review if you have the time.

Sadly, the next chapter will be somewhat delayed again. Reason being is I'm going to be in the hospital for surgery in less than a day, so I'm going to be loopy out of my head with all the meds I'm going to be on. I'll post again as soon as I can, but it's going to be some time. That's all from me for now.

'Till the next, live well all.


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: _Konichi-wa__ minna-san_. How've you been? Hopefully better than I was the last couple of weeks. Anyway, I'm back and the creative juices are finally starting to move again. Thanks for all the reviews, PM's, etc. Just a general point I want to make. Namely, I've no pairings in mind. I don't know where this story will take me and I will likely be a surprised as the rest of you when/if it comes to me. Also, those who made mention of my italics use: I was taught that when using words from another language than used for the majority of the document that's how it's supposed to be. Simple as that. Finally, when you get to it, Hinata's new outfit is supposed to be a variation of that blue shirt she wore to watch the exam finals in canon. I just couldn't quite get the description to read as I wanted, so it's only fair to tell you where I'm coming from. Ok, done now. Please enjoy this latest chapter.

OOOOO

Disclaimer: Naruto and any likenesses therein or other characters associated with the Narutoverse are not mine. But I think you likely knew this already. _Ne_?

Eyes Like No Other

Chapter Five

"Get out of the way _kamaboko_."

"Up yours Emo-boy."

Hinata woke slowly as she heard the two familiar voices in the hallway outside her room. She pushed herself up slowly and immediately noticed that she was not where she assumed herself to be. Although, it was not a place that was totally unfamiliar either. There were soft touches everywhere, little things that were decidedly lacking from the Hyuuga Estate.

The walls were painted soft pink that contrasted nicely with the eggshell coloring of the _shoji_ paper and light brown wood that framed the door. The small half windows were open and fluttered slightly in the morning breeze, allowing the early rays of morning light to peek in and rest on one of the photographs in the room. Just beside the mounted picture was a small wall hanging with a highly stylized kanji for "dedication". Just below the scroll was a small table in which a small _ikebana_ presentation of three carnations was also on display.

With muscles and joints that protested even the smallest movements, Hinata gently extracted herself from her covers and sat at the edge of the bed with her feet hovering just above the ground. At this moment she recalled why she preferred her futon rather than western-style beds. She didn't have to worry about falling out of them and crashing to the floor. Once her head seemed to stop spinning Hinata stood up again and looked out into the hallway, but her friends were already long gone. Hearing movement from the floor below her she decided to follow it and see who else was awake and see if she could find some answers to her questions.

The events of the previous night passed before her like a highly adrenalized dream, unable to sort reality from fiction. She also had no memory of how she had come to be in the Uzumaki home. Hinata swallowed nervously, wanting to know why she was at their house even more than how she had gotten there.

"Ah, so you're up as well then."

Hinata's head jerked a little as she entered the kitchen. So lost in her thoughts that she hadn't realized how far she had moved along. "Kushina-_okaa-san_…"

The older woman smiled and motioned Hinata to join her at the table. "You gave us all quite a show last night." She smiled softly, though she could see that the girl was still clearly quite distracted. "I take it you have questions?"

Hinata sat down and graciously took the tea that Kushina offered. She sipped slowly from the clay mug as she tried to gather her thoughts. In the end, one question leapt to the front over mind ahead of all the others. "Is what he said true?"

Only her many years as a shinobi, and as a mother, prevented Kushina from exposing her worry. The way in which Hinata had asked the question made it very clear that there was only one subject that the girl could be referring to. "Mizuki was already out for the night by the time we arrived." She explained softly in an attempt to by some time to carefully choose her next words.

Hinata, despite her few years, was not stupid. As experienced as Kushina was at reading Hinata, it was a blade that cut both ways. The little Hyuuga nodded slowly as she began to speak. "We were taught in school that…that my Father sacrificed himself to defeat the great _Kyuubi no Yoko_." Her head lifted a little to look Kushina in the eye. "But, that's not how it happened. Is it?"

Kushina had endured many injuries through her carrier, but none caused a pain in her heart the way Hinata's soft voice and defeated look did at that moment. "No, it wasn't." She finally admitted. "There are a lot of things that I can't tell you." She smiled sadly. "Some of them because…I'm not allowed to tell you. Some of them, because I really don't understand how everything worked together."

Hinata nodded in understanding, not that she really liked what she heard. "So, I am the _Kyuubi_."

"No!" Kushina reached across the table and took Hinata's hand firmly. "You are not that monster. You are Hyuuga Hinata and no one and nothing else."

"I am?" Hinata seemed to contemplate this for a moment. "I am Hyuuga Hinata. But if…I'm not the _Kyuubi_…then that means…" Her lips twitched ever so slightly into a smile. "It's inside me. I'm a prison for it. It's a part of me, but separate too. Right?"

"That's right." Kushina smiled. "I don't really get all the finer points, I'm no good with _fuuinjutsu_, but that's my understanding of it." She let go of Hinata's hand and gently stroked the side of her cheek. "You have done a great thing for this village Hinata, and I have no doubt that you will continue to do great things for Konoha as you grow up. People will forget that sometimes, but I want you to remember that. You became a hero of this village the very day you were born." Her smile seemed to fade a little as she remembered all the things she had heard Hinata had had to endure over the years. "Everyone will see that in time."

Hinata reached up and took Kushina's hand again as she looked down at the table. "I just…Minato-san told me that…" She paused to clear her throat. "He told me that my Father loved me very much, but he still chose me to…" She voice broke a little and a few tears began to run down her face. "Why did he choose me for this…if he loved me?"

"I don't know Hinata-_chan_." Kushina shook her head. "All I know, is that you were not supposed to have to deal with all this." She paused as she saw the look of confusion in Hinata's expression. "I told you that I don't understand everything about how it was sealed, but I know who was supposed to seal it."

Hinata gasped as she began to connect the dots. "Minato-_san_…" She looked up at Kushina again. "Naruto-_kun_?"

Kushina nodded as a few tears finally broke her carefully held face. "Why do you think I was so happy when you started to call me _Okaa-san_? You saved my family…"

"It's…my _nindo_." Hinata smiled as she saw the confused look on Kushina's face. "I…"

Kushina shook her head. "You don't have to explain Hinata-chan. As long as you understand better now and you're ok with everything." She gave Hinata's hand a squeeze. "Whenever you need to talk, or have questions, Minato and I are right here for you."

Hinata smiled as her heart beat fast and her cheeks warmed considerably. "_Hai, wakarimashita._"

Kushina let go of Hinata's hand and reached up to gently smooth a few stray hairs back into place. "But, that will have to be a little bit later." She smiled. "After all, you need to go get cleaned up so you can get to the academy on time for your team assignment."

Hinata jerked slightly as she remembered that she was now a _gennin_. "I have to go get washed up…"

Kushina smiled. "There's a change of clothing for you under your bed, and you know where the bath is." She shooed Hinata off with her hand in a very motherly fashion. "Breakfast will be ready when you're done."

With a nod Hinata got up and quickly ran back to her room to get her change of clothing. Her mind went to what Kushina had said, and felt herself get a little giddy. "She said she was happy I called her _Okaa-san_. We're family…" As she grabbed up the bundle of clothing she spun happily on the balls of her feet before she ran towards the bath. The idea made her happier than she could ever remember being. It was true that she did have her own family, but this was inclusion by choice. This was acceptance because of who and what she was as well as what she could do. Her smile increased as she entered the changing room before the bath and began to disrobe for her bath. "This is the greatest day of my life."

"I'm telling you Sasuke, this is going to be the greatest day of our lives!"

Hinata stopped dead as she heard the door behind her slide open quickly followed by Naruto's voice. "No way…" She whispered slowly as she began to turn.

"Hina-_chan_?"

"Hinata?" Numb to the sudden mutual intrusions, the three children stood and stared at each other.

Meanwhile, down in the kitchen, Kushina grimaced as she heard Hinata's scream followed by the protests of the two boys. She did her best to ignore the crashing and sounds of some vicious hand-to-hand combat. "Thought the boys would have been done in the bath by now." She smiled a little. "Ah well, they have to get used to the birds and bees eventually anyway."

OOOOO

"Anyone know why we're here?" Kakashi asked. "I thought all the decisions were made already."

Asuma shook his head. "Messenger bird came to me the same as it did for you." He lit up his cigarette and took as slow drag. "Maybe something changed with that event from last night?"

"Only thing I can think of." Kurenai agreed. "Hokage-_sama_ took the girl to stay the night at his own home to try and cut off the rumors from what I hear."

"Wow, news travels fast." Minato smiled as he entered the office with Iruka in tow. "I had hoped if she was a guest of my family it would put all the other potential rumors out before they could spread."

"So this is about the Hyuuga girl?" Asuma nodded. "I take it she'll be…"

"You'll be filled in on the details in a moment." Minato interrupted, not wanting to delve into that particular topic right away. "For now we have a different task to complete." He moved to his desk and cleared off enough space that they'd be able to work comfortably. "Yesterday, we had eight students pass the _gennin_ exam."

Kakashi sighed. "Not a good number."

"Two full teams, two subs." Kurenai nodded. "Not an ideal way to teach new shinobi."

"Last night, we also had a field promotion." Minato smiled as he tossed a number of tokens on the desk. "The first ever for an academy student."

Asuma grinned. "Three teams then, who was the lucky final graduate." He, and the other two _jounin_, went silent as Minato tossed down the final emblem with a picture of Hinata on it.

Minato had expected the reaction, but had hoped that he'd see another. "What we're going to do, is make the teams."

Kakashi's visible eyebrow rose slightly. "Isn't that the job of the examiners that passed the students?"

"Normally, yes." The Hokage agreed. "However, there were some issues with the grading procedures and the bias involved…" He paused as she saw his _jounin_ exchange glances. "Also, as I'm sure you're aware, there are some special considerations that need to be taken into account." He reached out and began to move the tokens with the _gennin_ faces on them around. "Suggestions?"

"Well, we know from the previous generation that this particular combination is pretty potent." Asuma moved towards the desk and lined up three of the tokens. "Can't go wrong with another Ino-Shika-Cho trio."

"I disagree." Kakashi shook his head, while simultaneously ignoring the annoyed look on Asuma's face. "I'll be the first to admit that the team you've selected had considerable merit, but the tactics are limited and, thanks to their parents, much more well known than they used to be."

Minato nodded. "Repetition breeds complacency, which leads to people dying unnecessarily." He moved out and returned the tokens to the pile. "We won't take that risk."

"Recently, there's been a lot of trafficking in young girls through Fire Country and the surrounding areas." Kurenai stepped forward and picked up three tokens. "I know it's traditional to split _kunoichi_ equally among teams, but maybe we should look at a team exclusively of females." She laid out the three _kunoichi_ tokens. "It could give us an edge in a lot of missions."

Minato nodded. "If there cultivated properly, however…" He grinned. "I mean no offence Kurenai, but a team of only _kunoichi_ has a lot of liabilities to go along with those benefits you mentioned. Differences in mentality and musculature are minimal at the _gennin_ rank, but they are increasingly noticeable, as they get older. More balance is needed, it's as simple as that."

Kakashi nodded. "We should look at balance then." He turned to Iruka. "I take it that Naruto and Sasuke were the tops of the class, who was number three?"

Iruka took the three coins and moved them into separate points. "Naruto and Sasuke actually tied for the Rookie position." He flipped the final coin. "Hinata had the next highest scores after them on paper. I've seen her use the _Bunshin_ though, if she had passed that portion of the exam she would have had the next highest score."

"You passed her even though she couldn't used _Bunshin_?" Kurenai was shocked that he would be so reckless. "Why?"

"She demonstrated the ability to use _Kage Bunshin_ later that night." Iruka grinned. "Given the complexity of the more advanced technique…" He trailed off as though the rest were self-explanatory.

Asuma blinked. "Well, she stepped up her game then." He looked over the remaining coins. "All right, so if they were the tops, who were the bottoms?"

"Depends on which particular aspects you're referring to." Iruka began to gather the next three coins. "Nara had the lowest over all, but I suspect that's due to the fact that he sleeps in tests. I've watched him when he's not officially under supervision, and I believe there's a great amount of talent hidden just be low the surface. It's just a mater of getting him to express it."

Kurenai watched as he laid down the tokens for Haruno and Yamanaka. "I remember the reports on these two from last year. A strong mind for one and a strong body for the other." She sighed a little, it seemed an unfortunate trend that girls just couldn't make the grades for shinobi the same way boys could. She made a note to speak with Iruka about the teaching system the school used. "Uchiha already has the core content he needs, so teaming him with Haruno would be a over allotment of text book knowledge."

"I agree." Iruka placed Ino's coin besides Sasuke. "Where as Naruto knows the same content almost as well…"

"He takes after his old man who liked to leap before he looked at that same age." Minato nodded with a smile. "Teaming him with Sakura might help to calm him down." He placed Sakura's coin next to Naruto's. "Which teams Shikamaru with Hinata by default."

Kakashi eyed his former teacher, knowing full well that Minato didn't do anything by default. "That leaves the three heavy weights to round out the power."

Iruka sighed. "I should warn Kakashi, if you make a comment like that near Choji, you may need every _jutsu_ you've ever copied to get out alive."

"I didn't mean body mass." The silver-haired _jounin_ clarified. "Inuzuka, Akimichi, and Aburame all specialize in using or being able to take down huge physical parameters.

"I realize that." Iruka nodded. "Choji won't."

Minato chuckled a little bit. "I'd say put Choji with Sasuke and Ino, but from what I've seen of his skill set…" He shook his head. "Choji uses power, while Sasuke relies on speed and Ino on immobilization style combat. As they grow older their skills will diverge far to much, teamwork attacks will be much harder."

"Pair them with Inuzuka." Asuma move the coin to complete the first team. "He's almost as strong and quicker on his feet."

"And send Choji with Hyuuga and Nara." Kakashi shifted the coin to complete another team. "_Jyuuken_ is a distinct advantage in hand to hand, but there are ways to counter it. They'll need the extra muscle if such a case arises."

"That'll put Aburame with Uzumaki and Haruno." Kurenai nodded. "Not a bad pairing either. I've worked with Shibi-_san_ in the past. The use of his family's insects will not only give Haruno increased data for planning, but also help drain any enemy forces that Naruto can't wear down the old fashioned way."

The occupants of the room turned as one as Gekko Hayate knocked on the door and slowly entered the room. "Sorry to intrude Hokage-_sama_." He bowed respectfully. "I was asked to get a message to you right away. He died on the table. The doctors said you'd know what that meant."

The Hokage frowned. "I see. Thank you Hayate." He waited until the extra _jounin_ had left the room. "There in lies the underlying problem. You see in addition to Hinata's…unique…history, she's also had access to the scroll of forbidden jutsu."

Kurenai blinked, knowing that something was amiss but unable to tell what it was she was missing. "That's a given if she learned the _Kage Bunshin_." She looked between her fellow _jounin_ and slowly light began to spread through the darkness.

"She learned a second technique." Kakashi whispered softly. "The power that she already possess, and at least two forbidden skills on top of it."

Minato nodded and pulled a folder from his desk. As the folder opened he spread out the photos of Mizuki in a hospital bed, each in worse health than the last. "These were taken over the course of six hours after he was recaptured."

"Hyuuga did that?" Asuma puffed at his cigarette anxiously. "Some new aspect of _Jyuuken_?" He looked over the photos carefully. "No, it looks like he was struck with a sudden severe case of _necrotizing fasciitis._" He looked back up at Minato. "How did she…"

"I've seen this once before." Kakashi whispered. "_Kami Kizu no Hebi_…"

"The Serpent's Bite Strike?" Kurenai asked, clearly confused.

"Chakra is converted into a hostile, almost venomous form and forced into the cells. The cells break down and poison the body of the victim, in turn infecting the next level of cells." Kakashi explained. "Essentially, the infection is an infinite loop, even a glancing blow can ultimately lead to a fatality if immediate treatment is not received." He looked over at Minato.

The blonde shook his head. "We did everything we could. Hinata combined the _Kami Kizu no Hebi_ with the _Kage Bunshin_. Mizuki already had a body wide infection by the time we found him."

The three _jounin_ paused and looked between each other. "Did she know what she was doing?" Kakashi finally asked.

"We're not certain." Minato admitted. "That said, that is why special consideration needs to be given to the team that Hinata is placed on."

"You need a team that can neutralize her if she should ever go rouge or lose control." Asuma locked eyes with his leader. "My old man was your predecessor, I've heard a lot of things not privy to most in the village. That is what you mean isn't it?"

Minato nodded sadly. "The girl is almost a daughter to me. I swore at Hizashi's grave that I would look after her…" He shook his head. "I hope to _Kami-sama_ that it will never come to it, but I can't let my personal feelings jeopardize the village at large either."

Kakashi knew first hand how important family and teams were to his former teacher. Before he knew what he was doing he was moving the coins on the table. "This arrangement…will take the best and the worst into account." He looked over at the other two _jounin_. "I'm also going to suggest, a different _sensei_ for her team."

Kurenai waited for a few moments. Kakashi was needed as a teacher for the last of the Uchiha. Asuma would be better suited to lead as a tactician if the worst ever happened. Not to mention both would be better able to combat Hinata with their proficiency of _taijutsu _and _ninjutsu_. Though her own mastery of _genjutsu_ was nothing to pass off easily, the _Byakugan_ would make her all but useless. Even more so considering Hinata was a _Byakugan_ user potentially powered by the _Kyuubi_. "Hokage-_sama_, given this was to be my first team, I do not feel properly qualified to lead a team at this time. I wish to resign my assignment."

Minato looked between the three advisors to be, and then down at his desk as he sighed. It took him a moment before he lifted his gaze to meet Kutenai's. "A have absolute faith in your abilities Kurenai. Are you absolutely…"

"I'm sure Hokage-_sama_." Kurenai replied, though with a slightly bitter smile. "We all have served as team leaders. We all know I'm the newest _jounin_ and the least experienced. It's the right choice."

The blonde smiled, defeated. "Very well then. I accept your resignation of assignment." His smile seemed to brighten a little. "I'll make sure you get a good crop of students next year."

Kurenai smiled. "I'll look forward to it." She glanced over at Kakashi, a wry smirk on her face. "So, who'd you have in mind to replace me?"

Kakashi's mask seemed to shift just a little as he smiled, relieved that Kurenai didn't see him as slighting her. "Actually, I have two potential candidates in mind." He looked over at Minato. "But I already know who you're going to pick. Isn't that right _Sensei_?"

Minato grinned. "Yeah, yeah, you do." He nodded to his former student and his chain-smoking tactician. "You know your assignments. I suggest you take you're teams before we alert the new candidate."

Asuma smirked. "Yeah, I can just imagine." He made a quick salute and vanished from the room in a puff of smoke.

Minato waited as Kakashi and Kurenai also left his office. "Well, this is going to get fun isn't it? No one's going to be happy with this." He grinned. "Not for the first years anyway…" With a fast seal of the hands, the fourth Hokage vanished in a flash of yellow light.

OOOOO

Hinata walked slowly to the academy. She felt strange for some reason. Part of it was the fact that she was still mentally replaying the scene in the Uzumaki's bath. Just thinking about exactly what had been seen, from all perspectives, made her face bright red. "At least I won't have to worry about feeling awkward around them on missions…since we won't be on the same team." She murmured quietly.

Her attention shifted to another factor in her strange feeling, namely her new outfit. When Naruto had told her they were going out to get new equipment, she had envisioned kunai, or shuriken. Maybe some wire and, in Naruto's case, exploding tags. She hadn't even considered that she might need new clothing. The look was not so different than what she usually wore, but the feel was off.

The dark blue training pants that she had always worn and broken in for so long had been replaced with a pitch black pair that cut off just below her knees. Stitched between the two layers of cloth was a fine metal mesh to provide extra protection in combat situations. Although they looked much the same, she found it strange to feel the metal moving about just above her skin and the extra weight also took some getting used to. She suspected that she would get used to the feeling and begin to ignore it in time.

Her old jacket was gone as well, as Kushina-_okaa-san_ had insisted she would get far to overheated on missions with such a heavy garb on. Instead, she wore a light beige Chinese style shirt of much lighter fabric. She had insisted on wearing a long sleeve shirt, as she had grown accustomed to her jacket's length, but Naruto's mom had bargained her down to a three-quarter-length sleeve. The shorter length, and the metal mesh enclosed in the shirt, was also going to need some time to adjust to.

The final change to her usual outfit, namely her supply pouch and her kunai holster, didn't look like much of a change at all. It was only when you opened them up that the modifications could be seen. She had always known that Minato was the pinnacle example of what a shinobi should be, but she had never considered the full range of that knowledge. While she had first hand knowledge of the more impressive aspects of the Hokage's _fuuinjutsu_, she had never thought about the more mundane uses of his sealing techniques.

As soon as Hinata had opened the supply pouch she had seen the tell tale lines and shaping of multiple seals. Apparently, Kushina had been in charge of making sure that the new _gennin_ were properly outfitted, Minato's task was to make sure they were properly supplied. In addition to the full compliment of kunai, shuriken, exploding tags, soldier pills, and razor wire, Minato had sealed another five full sets of supply's into the bag itself incase there was ever a situation where she ran out of something. Hinata hoped she never was in a situation where she would need that many weapons in a single shot, but was thankful that she had them all the same.

As Hinata came closer to the school she began to slow down her pace. It wasn't be cause she was nervous, but because she was being followed. Even so she would have been more concerned if not for the fact that the camouflage tarp the person had was being used incorrectly as there were suddenly horizontal boards in a fence that aligned vertically. Hinata finally stopped walking and turned around to face her unknown stalker. "Is there something I can help you with?" She asked with a smile. "Perhaps you need some help with how to use that tarp?"

"Guess you saw me pretty quick." Came a small voice. "Guess I should have expected that from someone like you." The tarp began to come down, revealing a little girl with long bright orange hair tied up in two bunny-ear like tails. Looking a bit lower two very noticeable blush marks were on her cheeks.

Hinata looked over the girl a moment, instantly noting the goggles worn in place of the _hitai-ate_ in the same fashion Naruto used to use. "Someone…like me?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah, the _gennin_ girl from the Hyuuga clan who beat up her _chunin_ instructor." The girl smiled weakly. "If you could beat a _chunin_, there's now way you'd miss an academy student."

Hinata smiled, thought there was a hint of sadness in it. "I got very lucky when I fought against Mizuki-_sensei_. My friends and I could have been killed. I'm really nothing special."

The girl shrugged her shoulders. "You still beat him. That's all that matters in the end." Her grin returned a little. "That's why I had to find you."

Hinata's head tilted slightly to the side. "Why's that?"

"I need you to show me what you did to beat him." The girl proclaimed. "I need to know your secret so I can get stronger too!"

Hinata paused a moment as she tried to think of what to say to this. The techniques she had used had come from the forbidden scroll, and she was fairly certain that the Hokage would not want such _jutsu_ passed around so easily. "I'm sorry, but I can't teach you what I used in that fight." Hinata felt her stomach lurch a little as she prepared to lie to the girl. "You see, I used my family's _taijutsu_ style, and that can only be used by people of the Hyuuga blood line."

The girl's whole body seemed to sag inward as she heard this. "That's what Konohamaru-_kun_ said. But I really was hoping that he was wrong."

Hinata smiled a little bit. "I'm sorry." A moment later she continued. "Why is it you want to get stronger so quickly?"

"Well, Konohamaru-_kun_ is really strong and energetic." The girl began. "And Udon-_kun_ is really smart…even though he looks like a doofus."

Hinata felt a little bit of sweat form at her brow at the last statement.

"But I don't have any really good stand out points." The girl continued unaware of Hinata's reaction. "If things stay this way, they'll become ninja and I won't."

Hinata nodded as she understood exactly where the girl was coming from. "What's your name?"

"Moegi."

Hinata smiled. "Well, Moegi, I guess we're a lot alike." She nodded as the little girl looked confused. "You see, I failed my exam the first time around, but because of the incident with Mizuki-_sensei_, they passed me afterwards." She walked over and crouched down so that she could look at Moegi at eye level. "There really isn't any short cut. You just have to work hard like I did…" She shook her head. "You have to work even harder than I did, so you can pass it the first time around. As long as you work hard, people will take notice."

Moegi blinked a few times, then nodded as she got a big smile across her face. "Ok then! Then I'm going to work really hard too! Even harder than you and Konohamaru-_kun_ and Udon-_kun_ put together!" She brought her finger to her chin in thought. "I can't call you my rival though. Konohamaru-_kun_ calls Naruto-_nii-chan_ his rival. If I call you that, he'll think I'm copying him. So…" She jumped back a little and pointed at Hinata dramatically. "From now on you're my target model. Anything you do, I'm going to do better!"

Hinata nodded. "Ok, then I'm going to work just as hard to give you lots to work up to." As the two girls nodded, Hinata glanced at a clock in a store window. "Ah! I'm going to be late!" She bowed to her new rival. "Sorry Moegi-_chan_, but I have to go!" She turned and shunted a huge amount of chakra into her legs propelling her high into the air and over the rooftops toward the school in the distance.

Moegi meanwhile looked on with stars in her eyes as her role model flew off out of sight. "So cool!"

OOOOO

In his office, Minato looked up as he felt a surge of chakra pass though him. He spun lazily in his chair to look out the window and saw a spec of a person seemingly sailing through the air above Konoha. With a sigh and an amused smiled he turned back to his paperwork. "The girl's going to need a parachute to land safely if she doesn't learn to control that soon." He chuckled.

OOOOO

The room was alive with chatter as Hinata ran breathlessly into the classroom for the final time. She paused only briefly as she surveyed the room. "Eight people, which makes me nine." She whispered under her breath. "Three teams, no way I'm going to be put with Naruto-_kun_ and Sasuke-_kun_ now." Though she had already known this, she was still a little saddened by this.

Naruto looked up from where he had been resting his head against his desk as he saw Hinata enter the room. He had been half listening to Sakura and Ino talk about whatever celebration their parents had taken them to for passing, but his concentration dropped dramatically as he nudged Sasuke with his elbow.

Sasuke for his part was doing his usual of looking out the window and trying to drown out the babbling story of the two new _kunoichi_. At Naruto's prodding however, his spine seemed to stiffen just a little and for a moment you could see the tension on his face before he masked it again. With a nod he got up and followed Naruto towards Hinata.

Hinata studied them both, with a slightly quicker heart beat, as they approached her. Thanks to the morning's events she hadn't seen them since leaving the house. If not for the bright yellow hair, and the other's brooding half-scowl, she might not have recognized them.

Naruto had undergone a complete wardrobe make over. His old jumpsuit, which Hinata privately called "The hideous orange thing", was a thing of the past. His pants were now a deep navy blue with black stitching. Making the color light enough to be casual, but also dark enough if he needed to hide himself. Even from this distance Hinata could see the armor mesh that hugged tight to his upper body beneath the loose white tee shirt he wore over it. At the collar she could also see a small insignia stitched into the fabric in the form of a small spiral, his family crest. The most noticeable changes though were to his forehead protector and his jacket. While most of the graduating classes forehead cloths were dark blue, Naruto had replaced it with an even longer black cloth. When tied he looked as though he had streamer-tails trailing behind him as he walked. She also got the sense of looking at a smaller version of Minato as she examined the coat more closely. It was a long length trench style just the same, but instead of the Hokage's white with red flames, Naruto's was black with blue flames at the bottom edge. Although she couldn't tell from here, she suspected that his, and Sasuke's, kunai pouches were modified similarly to hers.

Sasuke too had undergone a change of dress, though it was far less so than what his friend's was. His white shorts had been replaced with a midnight black pair with long silver and blue chains tied intricately around the sides and back. Hinata wondered how, even with his movements, they seemed to make no noise. He still wore the high collar blue shirt he usually had, but Hinata could see less of his face than usual, leading her to believe the collar was even higher. He also was wearing what looked to be a bloodstained tactical vest, though it had been striped down to avoid any confusion in his ranking between _gennin_ and _chunin_.

Hinata swallowed nervously as the two boys finally reached her. "Wh-what's wrong?" She blinked in surprise, as did the rest of the class, as both boys bowed deeply at the waist to her.

"We're really sorry Hina-_chan_." Naruto began. "It's just…"

"We were still a little distracted with what happened last night." Sasuke continued. "We didn't mean to…"

Hinata began to panic. If they continued on like this the whole class, and through their gossip the rest of Konoha, would know what happened. First off she didn't want to bring shame to her clan for the act. Then there was the idea that the other boys would ask what she looked like. On top of that there would be numerous questions from Sakura, Ino, and every other fan-girl in the village that Hinata just didn't want to deal with. She had to do something fast to change the topic. "It's ok." She replied quickly as she tried to make a cover story with everything she had learned from Iruka-_sensei's_ lessons. "I know you were really excited about getting here for you're team assignments. You didn't have to wait for me to finish breakfast." She smiled as the boys looked at her, completely confused.

It was only when Sasuke noticed the flicking of her eyes to the rest of the class that he caught on. "Well, as long as you're ok with it. We just wanted you to know we were sorry about it."

Naruto, for all his knowledge of the ninja world, still lacked some common sense. "What are you…" He stopped as he saw the twin looks from the two _doujutsu_ users and knew he should stop talking. With his trademark full mouth grin he nodded and put his hands behind his head. "Yeah, like you said, as long as everything's ok."

The room was hushed into silence yet again as the door to the class opened and Iruka walked in. "Ok! Sit down so I can give you your assignments. The faster we get done, the sooner you'll meet you're new _Jounin-sensei_."

"_Ne, ne, Iruka-sensei_!" Naruto called out quickly. "Who got the Rookie award this year?"

Iruka sighed, but smiled, knowing the two boys were competing for the bragging rights more than the title itself. "Fine, fine. You did Naruto…"

"_Yatta!_"

"And so did Sasuke." Iruka finished and laughed out right as Naruto, and to a lesser extent Sasuke, stared at him in disbelief. "Naruto did better on the physical, Sasuke did better on the written. Overall you both end up with the same score and tied." He smirked a little as the two boys began to grumble. "Now then, team names will be assigned based on which numbers are available. The team number does not indicate your rankings amongst the class or the other _gennin_ in the village…So don't ask me how you stack up against anyone else. You should know that by now anyway."

Naruto chuckled a little bit. "Yeah, yeah. Get on with it!" He was a fraction too slow in ducking as Iruka's chalk ricocheted off his forehead protector.

"If there are no more interruptions…" Iruka glared at Naruto. Hokage's son or not, he wasn't going to pull any punches on how he maintained his class. "Team seven will consist of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Akimichi Choji."

Hinata blinked a little at that selection. Sakura would likely grow into a position on the team with more practice, but the boys were worlds apart when it came to training styles. Slow and powerful, verses speed and lighter attacks. Still, maybe that was done purposefully to be ready for any kind of enemy encounter.

"Team eight will consist of Nara Shikamaru…"

Hinata crossed her fingers under her desk. "Please not me…" She begged silently.

"Yamanaka Ino, and Inuzuka Kiba."

Hinata stopped cold, sure that she had heard incorrectly. "How could they…"

"Team Ten will be the remaining three." Iruka continued, interrupting Hinata's assessment. "Uzumaki Naruto, Aburame Shino, and Hyuuga Hinata." He looked around at his former students. "You're _sensei's_ will be by to pick you up after lunch. I suggest you take the time to meet with you're new team mates and get to know one another." He paused. "That said, you are now Konoha shinobi. Keep that in mind as you conduct yourselves both inside and outside the village. Everything you do reflects not only on you, but your fellow villagers as well." He smiled. "I know you'll make us all proud. Good luck, and stay safe. Dismissed." With that he vanished into a puff of smoke, leaving the children to do what they wanted until the time came for them to go their separate ways.

OOOOO

Hinata sat patiently at her desk as she waited for their _sensei_ to arrive. As she had expected, Kakashi-_sempai_ had been by to pick up Sasuke's team earlier. The pairing made sense of course, given how close Itachi and Kakashi had worked, there would be plenty of opportunity to work on using the _Sharingan_. Another man, whom she didn't recognize other than his surname, had come by to take Ino's team as well. She wondered what kind of secrets they might be imparted, learning from the son of the _Sandaime Hokage_.

"Where the hell is our instructor!" Naruto began to rant, for the millionth time in the two hours they had been in the classroom. "I swear, I'm going to beat them to a pulp when they get here for making us wait so long!"

Hinata smiled lightly and shook her head. "No, you won't. But you will yell at them. You never start the fights Naruto."

The blonde sighed. "Yeah, I know."

"You know the higher ranked ninja better." Shino began. "Who do you suspect would be our instructor?"

Naruto thought a minute. "Well, I did hear that a new _kunoichi_ was up for selection. Although, Gekko might be up for rotation as well. I heard he wasn't ready for high level missions after he got sick." He seemed to think a little more as he lapsed into silence before jerking up right excitedly. "Oh! We might get Genma! That would be so cool! He'd finally have to teach me that senbon spitting trick of his!"

Hinata made a little bit of a face at this idea, not caring for the notion of spitting at all. The thought of holding such a sharp weapon in her mouth was similarly disconcerting. "I see. They both sound interesting…" Her statement abruptly cut off as the door was roughly thrown open so that it nearly came off its track.

"All right! Get your asses in gear! The sooner we get done with the little crap the sooner I can start throwing kunai at all of you!"

Naruto paled, as he recognized the voice. "No way…he wouldn't do it."

Hinata raised an eyebrow, first at Naruto's reaction, then at the proclamation, then finally as she came to see her new instructor. Long purple hair was tied back in a spiky ponytail, and though her eyes were a dull gray they seemed to have a spark that could only be described as insanity. She didn't wear a shirt but only the traditional metal mesh armor, but of a thicker variation so you couldn't see the skin beneath. There was similar armor on the upper portions of her legs, and to Hinata's relief a short tan skirt covered all the needed areas, if just barely. Her tan three-quarter trench coat finished off the outfit to cover her otherwise revealing dress. "You are…"

"I'm your new _Jounin-sensei_! Mitarashi Anko!" Yelled the woman. "Now get your asses to training ground twenty-two in the next two minutes or I fail you all back to the academy. Your test starts now!"

Hinata tried to ask for clarification, but Anko was already gone into a swirl of leaves. "What did she mean a test?" She called hurriedly as she and her teammates began to race for the rooftops to try and save time.

"It doesn't matter." Shino replied calmly. "We were given our objective. We must accomplish it."

"We are so screwed…" Naruto muttered. "Why her? Why did she have to be our _sensei_?" He shook his head as he considered Shino's assessment. "Twenty-two is all the way on the other side of Konoha! How are we going to make it in time?"

Hinata thought for a moment, not really liking her options. "Take my hands!" She ordered as they reached the roof of the school building. "Hold tight and don't let go!" She bit her lip as her new teammates did what she asked without question, praying silently for this to work as she cycled a huge portion of her chakra into her legs and out through her feet.

Naruto screamed as they rocketed off the school and high over Konoha, traveling at speeds he didn't know people were capable of. He looked up at Hinata, noting the determined expression, and the slight pain, on her face as buildings passed beneath them. "Hina-_chan_…_"_

Shino, however, was looking back the way they had come. Specifically, he looked at gigantic hole where the roof of the academy should have been. He frowned slightly, hidden behind his jacket, at how such a thing could have occurred. The insects beneath his skin were also quite agitated, moving almost completely away from the hand and arm that held fast to Hinata.

Hinata landed twice at random points in Konoha as they came down from her jumps, where she repeated them again and left more destruction in her wake. If she had to pay for repairs later she would, but she hadn't come this far for this strange woman to send her back to the academy. "I won't go back on my _nindo_." She barely breathed the words as she saw the training ground coming up before them, hoping beyond hope there was still enough time. Her face tightened in worry. "I won't."

End

OOOOO

A/N: A cliff, but not really. Don't worry, the next should have some decent action in it. So what do you think? Good? Bad? Other? If you have some time, please let me know what you think. 'Till the next, live well all.


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: Yo! I'm back! Though admittedly after far too long an absence. Life has a way of getting in the way of writing time unfortunately. Anyway, this chapter was a pain to write not only for time constraints, but for the fact it took me forever to get it to a point I thought made sense and/or wasn't utter crap. Then again, you the viewers are really the opinions that matter. So I'm going to stop talking and let you continue on. Please enjoy.

OOOOO

Eyes Like No Other

Chapter Six

"We're coming in too fast!"

Hinata nodded as she heard Naruto's announcement. "I know! I'm going to throw you both to the trees! You'll have to land on your own!"

"Understood." Replied Shino in his usual neutral tone.

"Ok! Ready?" Hinata held their hands tight for a few seconds more as they descended, waiting as long as she dared to give them the best shot of landing safely. Even so, it was going to have to be a very powerful throw.

Naruto and Shino exchanged glances at each other as they felt Hinata begin cycling chakra into her arms. They also noticed she was tucking her legs more to speed up her rotation. "This is going to hurt, isn't it?" Naruto asked.

"Undoubtedly." Shino nodded.

"Go!" Hinata continued her mid-air flip and poured the totality of her physical strength into her two throws. As soon as they boys were separated from her she released the accumulated chakra out of her hands, adding a second, more powerful propulsion to their travel. Once she was sure they were relatively safe, Hinata turned her attention to her own landing.

Thanks to that little stunt she was traveling even faster towards the ground than she was previously. "What do I do?" She whispered worriedly to herself. "At this speed, how can I do this?" Ideas raced through her mind, but nothing seemed to end favorably. The only option that had some merit was to expel every last bit of her chakra out ahead of her to try and slow her descent, but she didn't have enough in her reserves left to slow herself to completely avoid injury. "Here goes noth…" Suddenly, Hinata's world went white for a few moments as a sharp pain radiated out from her stomach.

"You really are…a reckless dumbass."

Hinata's vision cleared and she saw that the purple haired woman from the academy had leapt out of the trees and intercepted her fall. The human body was not designed to be plucked from the air in mid-flight however, and Hinata could feel the bruise already starting to form beneath Anko's arm as she held tight to her belly. "Why did you…"

Anko smirked as she landed easily in the clearing, and promptly dropped Hinata none to gently on her behind. "The pretty boy would get mad if one of my students died right off the bat. I gave him my word I'd wait at least a week before I killed one of you."

Hinata blinked rapidly as her teacher basically promised to destroy them. She stood up as quickly as her bruised abdomen allowed and activated her _Byakugan_ as she focused on Anko. "I won't let you to that. I won't let you hurt my friends."

One of Anko's eyebrows rose slightly as her grin spread wider. "Oh? I know you gave Mizuki a nice thrashing, but if you think you're at my level…" She vanished suddenly only to reappear behind Hinata with a kunai in hand and gently scraped it across the young girl's cheek. "You are sorely mistaken."

Hinata turned her head slightly, intentionally into the blade, so it finally drew blood. "Even if I'm not, I'm not going to let you hurt Naruto-_kun_ or Shino-_kun_."

Anko's eyes narrowed slightly. This girl, she hadn't flinched away from the blade or cutting herself. The kunai was gone in a flash and her grin spread further across her face. "Seems like you got some steel in you after all. I think I might actually like you in time."

Hinata frowned a little bit. "You're…a very strange person."

Anko smiled freely. "You have no idea." She looked up and away from Hinata. "Seems the boys finally showed up. How are your ribs?"

Hinata didn't understand what Anko was talking about for a moment, until she realized that there was no pain of any kind. "Sore…" She lied, not really understanding how the pain was gone, nor why she instinctively tried to hide that fact. "But I'll manage."

"Hina-_chan_!" Naruto burst from the trees, his coat flapping furiously behind him to seemingly backdrop him with a wall of blue fire. "Are you alright?"

Shino was quieter, and much less dramatic, with his entrance but there was a very tense atmosphere all around him that hadn't been there previously. "You are uninjured?"

"I'm fine." Hinata assured them both. Her body seemed to relax all at once now that she saw that both the boys were unharmed as well. She had been worried that the force of her throws would have hurt them even more on top of the harsh landing.

Anko clapped her hands slowly, in the style of mocking applause. "What do you know? You all made it in time. Got to say, I'm impressed." She smirked. "Just a little though." She looked between the three _gennin_. "Now, who was it who came up with this plan?"

"Hina-_chan_." Naruto nodded to the girl.

Simultaneously, Shino pointed. "Hyuuga-_san_."

Anko nodded, as though she already knew this. "So she came up with the idea, and did all the work while you two boneheads just tagged along for the ride?"

Naruto bit his lip a little, but nodded.

"Correct." Shino toned.

Anko scratched at her cheek. "Well, I guess the points go to her then. She gets two points, you two get none." She paused a moment to let them contemplate that idea, then continued with her explanation. "Now, I will explain the second part of this test…"

"I'd like to give my points to Naruto-_kun_ and Shino-_kun_."

Anko stopped. "What did you say?"

"We're a team." Hinata replied easily. "We succeed together, or not at all. It'll be easier for me to get one point to even us out than for them to have to get two points apiece. Gaining one is easier than four. It makes more tactical sense."

Anko shrugged her shoulders. "Fine, whatever." Her grin returned a moment later. "But it's not going to be so easy to get points anymore. So be careful in making such judgments without all the Intel." She sighed dramatically. "Anyway, the next test is considerably harder. You three will be fighting me."

The three _gennin_ looked to each other for a moment. It was Naruto who finally broke the tense silence. "Even with the extra man-power, we're severely out matched against you. So there must be some other objective you're looking for us to achieve."

"You're thinking too much." Anko smiled evilly. "Once you get out in the field, there are no safety rules. I'm coming at you full force. You will be scored in the following manner. You will get one point for each blow you land on me or each time you successfully block one of my strikes. For each time I land a blow on one of you, I will subtract one point from your total."

"The target goal?" Shino asked simply.

"Ten points." Anko nodded. "Each of you must have a score of ten by the time the test is over or one side is completely incapacitated. Anyone who doesn't have ten points…" She grinned. "Gets stripped of their rank and sent back to the academy."

"How do we know when the test ends?" Naruto demanded. "You can't just end is at any point."

"When the sun goes down." Hinata suggested. "We'd have even less chance in the dark, so the test would lose it's purpose at that point. I'd say that give's us about…three and a half hours."

Anko shrugged. "Fine, if you think you can last that long. I'll give you thirty seconds to plan or go hide. Then I come for you all." For a brief moment no one moved, then the three students turned and ran for the trees. "Ok, so now we get to see what they're made of." She waited another few minutes on top of the window she gave them, wanting to evaluate their ability to cover themselves. Overall she wasn't impressed.

Naruto was too noisy. Even though she couldn't see him, she could hear from a mile away. Hinata was nearly undetectable as she expected. With her bloodline she could hide in the most well covered areas and still have perfect view of the enemy. What she didn't seem to realize was that she was leaking a constant wave of chakra from her position in all directions to give that position away. Shino was the hardest to detect, but for her senses that didn't really mean much. The boy had taken to the trees and was moving rapidly from point to point. His presence became hazy quickly from so many rapid changes in location, but it only took a little extra effort to lock on to the most recent signature.

"Let's get this over with." Anko muttered as she began to move slowly towards the trees, making sure to follow the path that they had taken from the start, rather than go straight to their current locations. "Why'd I let him talk me into this?" She walked through the woods at an unhurried pace, slowly circling around to hone in on Hinata's location. With her eyes, she made the most sense as the coordinator of any group attacks. Take her out and the other two would be blind and unable to work together. As she got closer and closer to Hinata's position Anko began to pick up her pace until she was at an all out sprint. With kunai in hand, she ripped through the dense foliage covering where Hinata was crouched. "Got you!"

Hinata smiled deceptively as Naruto dropped down behind Anko. "Stalemate."

Anko grinned a little. It was an unconventional trap, but at least they were trying. "Think so?" She twirled about and slammed the thick ringed hilt of her kunai into Naruto's nose. "Cause I don't." She gasped as Naruto suddenly disappeared in a plume of smoke. "What the hell?" She spun around again to face Hinata, but the girl was already long gone. The purple haired _jounin_ grit her teeth. "_Kuso_…Since when does Naruto know how to use _Kage Bunshin_?"

"What's the matter?" Asked one of the five Naruto clones that suddenly dropped down out of the trees around Anko. "You look like you found a little snag in your plan."

Anko smirked. "You think having expendable clones will win this for you?" She flicked her hands and sent two kunai into two clones, sending them quickly from this world. She jumped high as the one behind her attempted to rush her. A quick flip in mid-air spun her around to deliver a savage blow to the back of the clone's head with her knee. After a brief groan, that clone too vanished.

The remaining two clones clenched their teeth, knowing they had to do something different if they were to have any success. Even as they pulled kunai from their own holsters they could feel the change in the flow of battle. "What's she…"

"_Senju Seisha_!" Anko's arms extended towards the two clones and a multitude of snakes poured from her coat sleeves at terrifying speeds. She smiled as the blondes went out with a satisfying "pop" before turning to look around the forest again. "You're going to need a lot more than that if you plan to beat me!"

"Ok!"

Anko looked up as another dozen or so Naruto clones descended from the trees around her. "Here we go again." A round of shuriken were plucked from her holster and sent soaring into the wall of black and blue flames, dispelling nearly half of the attacking force instantly. As the rest of the clones landed on the ground Anko leapt into a spinning back kick that launched the unbalanced clone high into the air where it became smoke again. "You're lucky these clones don't count against you Uzumaki! Otherwise you'd have no chance at passing the exam at this point!" Her head jerked around as she noticed a buildup of chakra coming from behind her. "No way…he shouldn't even know that technique! Let alone have the chakra control for it!"

Naruto grinned as he finished the hand seal. "_Katon__: Gyoukaku no jutsu_!" His head leaned back only to whip forward a moment later as he expelled a huge ball of intense flame from his mouth.

Though momentarily stunned by Naruto's successful completion of the Grand Fireball maneuver, Anko hadn't become a _jounin_ simply for her attitude and soon jumped into action. "_Suiryudan no jutsu_!" Similar to Naruto, Anko's head whipped back and forward again to expel her attack. Rather than fire however, an enormous dragon composed of water shot from her mouth to easily over power the fireball and head straight for the caster.

Naruto braced himself for the hit, but it didn't come from the side he expected it to. He barely noticed the approach before his savior was atop him in flash of white and black. As he looked around he noticed they were a long way off from where they had started. "Hina-_chan_? What did you do?"

"Kept you from losing a point." Hinata stood up. "Be careful."

Naruto looked up as the Hinata clone vanished. "She's good." He smirked and jumped back into the trees to begin the next assault.

Meanwhile, the real Hinata was crouched in a high tree top branch well outside Anko's range of detection. "You're certain? We'll only have one chance."

Shino nodded. "_Hai_."

Hinata returned the curt affirmation and began to move quickly into the waiting fray. "_Kage bunshin no jutsu_." She whispered as she created a new set of clones on the fly.

Anko spun as she heard something land with a fair amount of force behind her. "So, back for round two?"

Hinata dropped into her usual _Jyuuken_ stance, but didn't reply. Instead she began to make a number of seals. "_Kami Kizu no Hebi_!"

Anko's eyes went wide in shock. "She knows how to use that?" Her own hands moved through an identical series of seals and soon her hands were surrounded with the same sickly green and black chakra that Hinata had. "You have no idea what you're dealing with! Cancel that _jutsu_ immediately!"

"There are no safety rules." Hinata reminded her teacher of her words from earlier. "If you are coming at us full force, we can do no less."

"We?" Anko blinked. "_Kuso__!_" She leapt back just in time as a swarm of insects rushed her from all sides. "Another trap…"

"You can not escape." Shino ran at top speed into the cloud of bugs to where his hive told him his prey was. "Surrender while you still can."

"_Fuuton: Daitoppa!_" Shino barely had time to register what had hit him, let alone wonder what had scattered his insects before they could land and begin an attack, before Anko was behind him. "Nice try, but I'm well aware of your abilities Aburame."

"That remains to be seen." Shino replied as his body dissolved into a mass of separately moving _Kikai_ insects that diverged in all directions. Only when the last of the insects had moved away did the next attack come.

Anko spun and her hand met Hinata's strike. Though their hands could not physically touch, their chakra masses from the Serpent Bite Strike could. Both women were forced to leap back and shield their eyes as the collision resulted in an explosion even bigger than Naruto's fireball had left. The purple haired _jounin _rubbed at her eyes a moment to clear her vision and soon honed in on the still dazed girl. "I guess we'll call that one a draw."

Hinata got to her feet slowly. "_Hai_, it seems that way." Her eyes burned fiercely from the explosion. With her _Byakugan _active she had seen the full range of the blast unprotected. Even now her vision was blurred terribly and she stumbled as she tried to move.

Anko watched for the briefest second, indeed she almost seemed concerned that her student might have been contaminated with the venom chakra of her attack. As she attempted to move towards the girl, a new swarm of insects came out of the darkness behind Hinata.

Anko smirked as she began to make another series of seals. "Didn't you learn from the first time? Your bugs can't drain me if they can't get near me. _Fuuton: Daitoppa_!" As the great wind blasted forward to scatter the bugs, Anko realized that he had indeed learned the lesson well.

The wind began to die down just as the last of the insects were torn away, revealing their true purpose. Naruto jumped forward as his bug shield dissolved around him and landed well within Anko's guard. "Gottcha!" He clapped one fist into his other hand and used the extra leverage to launch a crippling elbow strike into Anko's abdomen. He made good use of her suddenly bending over as the wind was forced out of her and followed up with a rising palm heel strike to her chin.

Hinata watched the little exchange with her enhanced vision as she and Shino moved to a safe location. "He's taking to long. He was just supposed to make a quick strike and retreat."

"It's fine." Shino countered. "We all have our part to play."

Hinata shook her head. Why did boys think it was ok to act macho even when they knew they were out matched? "He's going to get himself hurt, and he's going to ruin the plan." She moved her hands close to her body and made a few small hand signals.

"Our battle tactics are a time proven method taught to us at the academy." Shino recited dryly. "When facing a superior force, use guerrilla tactics. Hit and run. Wear the enemy down." Though barely noticeable, he shifted his glasses with a small wrinkle of his nose.

Anko blinked as the two _gennin_ suddenly jumped apart and she landed in a now empty location. "I hate that _doujutsu…_" She muttered as she pushed off from the ground and after Hinata.

Hinata backpedaled as she tried to mount a counter attack. She managed to defend against a few attacks, but the majority of them got through her guard. There wasn't much she could do against someone who had advantages in reach, speed, power, and experience. Still, she did have one advantage that Anko didn't. "Now!"

Naruto burst from the tree cover above, making use of the extra weaponry his father had sealed into his hip satchel. "_Uzumaki Naruto Ni-sen Rendan_!"

Anko swore loudly as she was forced to leap away from Hinata and Naruto's trap. She barely had time to register the snap of a twig behind her before she was turning to see Hinata behind her. "When…"

"_Jyuuken_!"

Anko's hands flashed through the seals with unconscious years of practice. "_Kawarimi no jutsu_!" She felt her chakra extend out in all directions and latch on to a suitable mass of wood. Instantly she was in a tree high above the two _gennin_, safe from attack.

"_Kikai_."

"Impossible!" Anko fell backwards off the branch just in time to avoid being swallowed by a swarm of destruction bugs. "How did he find me so easily?"

"Though I can not sense your movements, my allies are more experienced at sensing chakra movement than any human will ever be." Shino replied as he attacked from Anko's blind spot.

The purple haired _jounin_ grit her teeth and rotated her arms to spin herself toward the sound of the voice. As she did so she pulled a kunai from her coat instinctively and slashed across Shino's outstretched fist. She had to give the boy credit as only a small grunt escaped him from having his hand cut open. "Good, but not enough." She spun again, landing a roundhouse kick to the bug users side.

"Shino-_kun_!" Hinata dashed though the trees and caught the falling boy. "Are you ok?"

"Fine." Shino replied as they touched down. "Status?"

"Naruto's keeping her distracted for the moment." Hinata turned as she heard the sound of kunai scraping against each other. "But it won't last for much longer."

"We should regroup." Shino turned to look at the sky. "We run short on time."

Hinata smiled. "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll be ok."

Shino looked at her and tilted his head slightly. "You base this opinion on what information?"

Hinata closed her hand into a fist. "Just a feeling." She looked down and saw that there was a small puddle of blood forming next to Shino. "We need to dress that."

Shino shook his head. "Later. We have more pressing concerns."

Before Hinata could insist, her teammate was gone into the trees to find his next point of attack. She opened her hand, revealing a small glowing mass of chakra. "I hope this works." She turned quickly as she heard a cry of pain from further into the forest. She activated her _Byakugan_ and saw Naruto pinned to a tree with a number of kunai. Her jaw clenched as she funneled chakra to her legs and sprinted toward her long time friend.

Naruto struggled to get free, but he wasn't so distracted that he couldn't feel Hinata's presence closing in on him. He intensified his efforts to get free before she got to close. Before she fell into Anko's trap. His eyes widened as he realized that she would be atop him before he could free himself. "Get back! It's a trap!"

Hinata skidded to a halt as she heard her teammate's warning. "What? How? Where is she?"

"Behind you."

Hinata turned, only to receive a fist to her cheek that sent her reeling through the forest. "How did she get past my _Byakugan_?" She managed to get to her feet in time to block the next punch, but was too slow to halt the knee that came up into her stomach. A quick and powerful ridge hand strike to her temple brought her to the ground once again.

"Stop it!" Naruto growled. "That's enough!"

Anko shook her head. "I told you. This is the same as real life. I will pull no punches."

Naruto lunged forward with all his strength and landed hard on the ground. He discarded the remains of his now ripped up coat as he ran towards Anko. "I said that's enough!"

"You're to emotional." Anko spun and caught Naruto's fist as he launched a wild punch. "You want to get yourself killed, an attack like that is the perfect way to do it."

Naruto grinned. "Who said I was talking to you?"

Anko's eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Hinata stood up slowly, a smile on her face despite the few bruises that were evident. "Anytime you're ready."

Shino stepped out from behind one of the larger trees. "You are defeated Anko-_sensei_. Submit peaceably."

Anko attempted to stifle her laughter, but it didn't last long. "You guys beat me? How?" She brought her hand to her forehead and continued to chuckle. "You've barely landed half a dozen blows on me all together. Let alone the ten each of you need."

"You are mistaken." Shino extended his hand and snapped his fingers. "As you will soon come to understand."

Anko waited a moment. "And that did what exact…" Her body began to tingle and her knees gave out suddenly. "What? How?"

Hinata opened her hand, revealing a small glow of chakra. "We knew we couldn't match you as we were. You said it yourself, you knew all about us."

Anko squinted her eyes as she started to fall forward, barely catching herself from completely face planting into the dirt. Still, her vision was clear enough to see what was swarming over the chakra that Hinata held. "Destruction bugs?"

Naruto nodded. "You expected the bugs with Shino, but not from me or Hinata." He grinned. "Once we got one on you, we just had to keep you distracted as the rest slowly made their way to you."

"_Kami Kizu no Hebi_…" Anko muttered as her vision began to cloud. "That was the only point you could have gotten close enough."

"Hey! I landed two good strikes on you too!" Naruto corrected quickly. "But yeah, I moved to quick to let the bugs transfer."

Hinata nodded. "I didn't expect you to use the same attack. But the blast was enough of a shock to both of us that you didn't notice me plant the insect on you."

"Even so…" Anko was using every bit of her years of training to maintain her consciousness. "Only Aburame can be considered to have taken me down. The other two will go back to the Academy."

"Not so." Shino adjusted his glasses. "By my count one hundred and seventy-eight of my allies are feeding off your chakra right now. Each of which can be counted as an individual strike. Given that you allowed Hinata to share her points before, there is no reason to bar me from sharing mine now."

Naruto blinked. "I think that's the most I've ever heard you speak Shino."

"Naruto-_kun_!" Hinata gasped. "That's very rude!"

Shino however didn't seem to take any notice. "The point being, we have more than sufficient points between the three of us to pass as a team."

Anko sighed heavily; both from the attack and the fact she knew they were right. "Ok, ok! You win, call them off."

Hinata watched, with a certain degree of curiosity, as Shino's bugs began to file down off Anko's body and back to their living hive. "Then, we will not be sent back to the academy?"

Anko rolled over onto her back, breathing heavily as she did so, and reached into her trench coat. "Yeah, you're safe I guess. You're all my official _gennin_ team now." She pulled a small vial of red pills from her pocket and popped a few in her mouth.

Hinata blinked as she watched Anko's chakra being to replenish at an alarmingly quick rate. "_Sensei_? What was that you just took?"

Anko sat up again as her strength began to return to her. "These? Soldier pills." She looked between the three young shinobi who all seemed to have different reactions to this information. "You do know what these are, right?"

Hinata shook her head. "I saw…" Her voice dropped out as she remembered the night she had first seen a Soldier pill. Ino's father had taken them, after working on Sasuke for hours on end. "I saw someone take them once, but I didn't know what they were for at the time."

"Mom says I'm not allowed to take them." Naruto scratched his head nervously. "She says I'm high energy enough as it is. Plus, I need to learn to control my chakra properly and not cheat with tools."

"It is customary to use the pills as a supplemental aid when first taking on the responsibilities of a hive." Shino spoke simply. "Though I have not needed them since that initial transition."

Anko nodded, gaining a fair amount of insight on all three of her students without any of them seeming to realize it. "Speaking of control…" She looked over at Naruto. "How'd you use the Grand Fireball Technique?"

Naruto laughed, but then seemed to get rather nervous. "Well, you see, Sasuke and I spar a lot and…" He looked down at the ground and kicked a small pebble. "He uses it a lot. After seeing the hand seals so many times, I just kind of figured out how to do it."

"You stole it." Shino summed up.

"_Urusei_!" Naruto spun around quickly with a fair amount of anger on his face. "I didn't steal anything! I learned how to do it by watching him use it way too often!"

Hinata sighed, knowing how important it was to keep the specifics of techniques secret. "I don't think he meant it like that Naruto-_kun_. And it's not like you spied on Sasuke to learn the seals. It was during a spar." She turned to look over at Shino. "And considering that Sasuke-kun's bloodline will allow him to copy many kinds of techniques once it develops, it's hardly fair to call what Naruto-kun did stealing and to respect it when Sasuke-kun will be able to do it."

Shino seemed to think on this a moment, then nodded. "You are correct. Uchiha will also be stealing techniques, and on a much larger scale at that."

Hinata frowned. "That isn't what I meant…"

"Anyway…" Anko interrupted as she stood up once more. "It doesn't really matter. Knowing every _jutsu_ there is won't help you if you don't understand the time and place to use it."

"So? We'll be training on timing scenarios then?" Naruto asked excitedly.

Anko shrugged. "Yeah sure. Why not?" She looked at each of her students. "Uzumaki, Aburame. You're dismissed until tomorrow. Meet back here at oh nine hundred. And make sure you eat enough to support yourself. I don't give breaks like some of my colleagues." The _jounin_ turned her attention to Hinata. "You, come with me."

Hinata looked to her friends for a moment before nodding and smiling at them. "I'll catch up to you guys." Her face set in determination as she turned to follow Anko who was already walking away. Remaining silent seemed like the best strategy for now as she had no idea what her teacher wanted her for. She considered for a brief moment attempting to use her _Byakugan_ to try and read Anko's indicating movements, but gave up the idea knowing she'd never get an accurate read on a _jounin_ with her skill level.

"_Kami Kizu no Hebi_…"Anko's voice was low and even as she finally came to a halt deep within the forest. "The only way you could have learned that technique was to have had access to the forbidden scroll."

Hinata nodded, even as she wondered why Anko seemed surprised by this fact. "Didn't _Hokage-sama_ tell you that I had taken the scroll?" The young girl quickly looked down at the ground as Anko wheeled about with a look of disbelief clearly on her face. "Guess not…" Hinata whispered to herself.

Anko sighed. "So that's how the three of you knew _Kage Bunshin_. You learned it and then taught it to Uzumaki and Aburame."

"Actually…" Hinata interrupted. "I haven't taught them the technique."

Again Anko was caught by surprise. "You mean to tell me…you married the transformation technique to the shadow clone technique?" She blinked a few times as Hinata gave silent agreement by fidgeting and pressing her fingers together nervously. "Unbelievable…a freaking _gennin_ pulling off a _jounin_ level to begin with…but then using it in combination…"

Hinata looked up, unable to tell if Anko was praising her or not. "_Sensei_?" She jerked a little bit as Anko seemed to snap out of her train of thought. "What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Anko sighed. "The Serpent Bite Strike…There are only a few people who know that move. Do you know how powerful it is?"

"It was how I beat Mizuki-_sensei_." Hinata whispered softly. "I know how dangerous it is."

"Did you know he died this morning?"

Hinata's head snapped up with such force she could feel the muscles in her neck spasm. "What? How? The move should have only made him sick for a little while. Just enough to incapacitate him…" Hinata shook her head, unwilling to believe what she had just been told. "He shouldn't be dead…"

Anko sighed and shook her head. "That's what I thought…you don't know how powerful it is." She pointed to a log. "Sit. I want you to tell me exactly what it was you read in that scroll about his technique."

Over the next few minutes Hinata explained everything she had read, outlined ever seal, every diagram, even the notes scrawled into the side panels. The recitation of the facts was both the best and the worst thing she could have done at the moment. It was good because it took her mind from just learning she had killed a man. At the same time it was bad because she was now reanalyzing all the information, and seeing exactly how it could have become a fatal blow.

"That's everything?" Anko asked as her student finished, only to bite her lip. "That stupid bastard…he only gave half the information." She looked over at Hinata, her eyes hard and serious. "I want you to listen to me very carefully. That move is a _kinjutsu_ for a reason. You are hereby forbidden to use that move unless I say otherwise. Do you understand?"

Hinata nodded, only too eager to agree to Anko's stipulations. Even with permission, Hinata couldn't imagine ever using that move again now that she knew what it was capable of. "Yes, I understand."

"Good." Anko stood up. "Then I want you here tomorrow at oh-six-hundred. We'll be working on the other half of that _jutsu_ so you don't kill anyone by accident." As she passed her charge Anko stopped and placed a hand gently on Hinata's shoulder. "The first one is always the hardest." This time it was Anko who looked at the ground. "It will get easier, but it should never get too easy. Hear me?"

"_Hai…Sensei…"_

"Go home Hyuuga." Anko ordered. "Go be with your friends. Celebrate the fact they still have their innocence in this line of work." She let go of Hinata and continued to walk. "_Kami_ knows we lost ours far to young…"

Hinata turned, but her teacher was already gone into a swirl of leaves. For a few minutes she simply sat. It was only when she saw the dark spots forming on her pant legs that she realized she was crying. Eventually the tears stopped, and though Hinata still felt lousy she forced herself to get up and begin the long walk back to the village proper.

OOOOO

"I see now why you and Naruto get on each other's nerves." Minato looked up from his scrolls with a smile on his face as Anko appeared before his desk. "He doesn't like to knock either."

"Whatever pretty boy." Anko stuck out her tongue. "I thought you'd want to know about what I learned. She didn't know it could be fatal, didn't even know he had died."

Minato nodded. "I suspected as much." He sighed. "It might be for the best though, getting her first in a more or less contained setting. Had it happened in the field…" His thoughts drifted to the time Hinata had been abducted.

Anko had a not been privy to the details of that particular aspect of Hinata's past, and as such misread her commander's expression. "Do you ever…do you still remember your first?"

Minato shook off is thoughts as he turned back to Anko. "Less than I used to, especially after the Great Shinobi War with _Iwa_, but yeah…It'll come back in a dream every now and then." He could see the wheels turning in Anko's head. "You?"

"Yeah…" She admitted. "More than I'd like…"

"Anko, if you need…" Minato began.

Anko let one of her rare genuine smiles through. "I know. You and Kushina-_sempai_ are there for me." She looked out the windows and into the village. "I just hope Hyuuga has someone she can talk to."

Minato smiled. "She's got her people. Some of the best in the last few generations." He winked at Anko. "You included."

Anko stuck out her tongue again. "You won't think so highly of me when I start busting them up." She turned and headed for the door. "Later pretty boy."

Minato smiled as he sat alone in his office. "Yeah, they've all got their people to lean on." He looked out the window. "Let's hope things can last this way."

OOOOO

"Hina-chan!"

Hinata looked up and saw Naruto waving wildly from inside Ichiraku's ramen stand. It seemed that this was to become the local hang out for them and began to jog over to join him. "Sorry I'm late…"

"Whatever Whiskers." Sakura smiled. "Just get in here and have something to eat." She looked over at Ino. "Or just eat hers. She claims she's dieting again."

"Shut up forehead!" Ino shot back.

"Both of you shut up." Sasuke sighed. "You're too noisy."

Hinata smiled as she recalled the parting words her teacher had given her. Taking a seat at the counter, Hinata looked over her closest friends. "Next round is on me." She offered. "But only if you tell me about your new teams."

"Ah! She's spying on the other teams already!" Naruto grinned. "I like your style Hina-chan!"

Sasuke smirked. "How do you know we'll tell the truth?"

Hinata shrugged. "I just want to hear what your days' were like, that's all. Not a debriefing." She laughed along with her friends, hoping things would remain like this forever, despite knowing in her heart that things would never be the same after tonight.

End

OOOOO

A/N: So? Good? Bad? Other? If you have a moment please drop me line to let you know what you think. As a side note, I feel at this point I should just give fair warning. The more I think about this project, the more ways I find to turn the Naruto-verse on it's ear. If you're reading because you want cannon with only a few changes, I don't think it's going to play out that way. Just a heads up for those who stick around.

'Till the next, live well all.


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: Hey all. Long time eh? Sorry about that. Been busy and had a bit of writers block with this chapter and ended up re-writing it a few times. In the end I like how it turned out. That said, I originally planed to jump right in the wave arc but it just felt rushed to do that. So, to those who were looking to see Haku and Zabuza make an appearance, it will likely happen next chapter rather than this one. Gomen yo. Ok, all done. Please read and enjoy.

OOOOO

Eyes Like No Other

Chapter Seven

"You're pretty good at that."

Hinata's eyes shifted a fraction of an inch, not that she really needed to as her activated bloodline limit had allowed her to see the person who had intruded on her early morning practice session. "Thanks." She turned to face the girl slowly and her eyes returned to their normal state. "I'm sorry, I know I've seen you before, but I can't remember your name."

The girl smiled as she stepped out of the pre-dawn shadows. Her hair was pulled up into two tight buns at the back quarters of her head. "That's ok. We only met for a few minutes when I stopped over to collect Neji that time he was late." She scratched her cheek and her deep brown eyes seemed to dull for just a moment. "He got really mad at me that day. I think I embarrassed him a little when I told him he was late."

Hinata nodded as she remembered the incident now. "That's right, he wasn't himself that day at all." She paused as she tried to remember the details of that day. "It was Ten-ten-san, right?"

"Yeah, that's me." Ten-ten affirmed. "But you can drop the formalities. After all, your clan makes you a much higher rank than me."

"That's…" Hinata shook her head. "A clan's position shouldn't really matter. We're both shinobi after all." She smiled, sadly, so that it was hidden in the darkness. "Besides, my standing in the clan isn't really all that great in reality, so we'd be on pretty equal terms even if we were going to follow your idea."

For anyone else Hinata's facial expression would have been lost, but Ten-ten's eyes were sharper than most jounins'. "If you're sure then. Thanks." She stepped a little further into the clearing of the training field. "I've never seen anyone else out here this early. When'd you start coming here?"

"Just a week ago." Hinata moved towards the training targets and began to collect her kunai. "I thought it was time to move to a more difficult set of targets. The last training ground was starting to become a bit to easy."

Ten-ten's grin expanded considerably. "You also like to fight long range then?" She watched interestedly as Hinata sat down on a nearby log and began to clean the blades in preparation for the next round of targets. Instantly her respect for Hinata rose considerably for seeing that.

"Not really." Hinata shook her head as she pulled out a sharpening stone from her hip pouch. "It was something Naruto-kun's father said about my father, an old training method that they used sometimes. Minato-san didn't really understand all the details but he said it boiled down to something like, if you can hit a target that's far away you can hit a target that's right on top of you."

"It sounds like a coordination drill." Ten-ten nodded. "My mom uses that same idea with me all the time."

Hinata stopped in mid-sharpening as she looked up at Ten-ten. A second later she looked down and continued to repair her kunai. "I see."

Ten-ten bit the inside of her cheek as she realized how foolish she was. This girl probably thought that she had recovered some piece of her father, the great hero, that only she knew about. In a single spoken thought, Ten-ten had dashed that hope to smithereens. "But…who knows. There's a lot of stuff about your clan I don't know about. Maybe it's different."

Hinata nodded, trying to recover whatever little bit of her foolish dream she could. "Yes, that could be." She spun her kunai about her finger by the ring-hilt testing the balance before catching it in her palm. "The fact that the training styles seem similar must mean that it has merit." She looked up and forced a smile. "Now I know I'm not wasting my time."

Ten-ten's eyes narrowed and her mouth curled into a disappointed frown. "Don't do that."

Hinata blinked in confusion. "Don't…do what?"

"Don't force smiles like that." Ten-ten clarified. "Don't force emotions that aren't really there." She sighed disappointedly. "That's almost as bad as your brother trying to pretend he doesn't have any emotions at all."

"That's…how our clan…our family is." Hinata shook her head. "At least that's what I've heard." Her lips seemed to thin as she considered if she had already said too much. It was true that Ten-ten was Neji's teammate, but there was only so much that should really be told to a non-clan member. Hinata couldn't deny the possibility that because of Ten-ten being a teammate to Neji that maybe she should be even more careful not to reveal anything. Just in case Ten-ten betrayed them someday. "I don't really know much. My knowledge of the clan history is rather limited."

Ten-ten shrugged. "Yeah, well, it's still not a good thing to deny your emotions anyway." She looked over at the now empty targets. "Not to change the subject, but I came out here for some target practice. Not to mention this conversation is getting a little to girly for me." She grinned and nodded between Hinata and the targets. "Want to train together?"

Hinata looked up at the sky and could see the first rays of light beginning to break through the cloud cover. "I have about an hour before I have to meet Sensei for training. Working together sounds like a great way to pass the time until then."

The birds in the surrounding forest took off suddenly a moment later. They called out in terror as the sound of six kunai hitting the target reverberated through the trees. It was almost as though the birds were trying to warn Konoha of some big change that had taken place.

OOOOO

"Sensei…"

Anko looked over at her blonde haired student. "What the hell do you want now brat? Bad enough you finally wore me down for that break you guys wanted. Why are you still bothering me?"

Naruto frowned and pointed at Hinata's sleeping form slumped up against the tree. "What did you do to Hina-chan? And why is she getting special training alone with you before our team training?"

Anko smirked and folded her hands behind her head as she leaned back on her tree branch. Although he didn't say anything, Anko could feel Shino watching her and expecting an answer from her as well. She had to admit, she was surprised it had taken them almost a month to finally work up the nerve to ask the question.

"Hey!" Naruto jumped to his feet and thrust and accusing finger at his teacher high above him. "If you hurt Hina-chan I'm going to make you pay for it, so you better not be thinking up some excuse!" He fell backwards as a hundred yen-sized rock shot from Anko's hand and hit him squarely in the center of his forehead guard.

Anko's eyes had narrowed and it was quite clear that she was grinding her teeth. "You've got a lot of nerve threatening me chibi. Besides, if you want to know about what she's doing you should ask her yourself."

"We have tried." Shino spoke quietly. "She will not give her reasons. Were it not for the fact that my allies have noted considerable wear on her physical body and exhaustion of her chakra systems I would have believed she was receiving preferential treatment."

"You think I'm spending more time with her and you're jealous?" Anko asked in disbelief.

Shino shook his head slightly. "I care not what kind of time you spend with her as opposed to us." He pushed his glasses up a bit with two fingers. "However, her current state of health puts the team at risk. That I can not allow."

Anko bit the inside of her cheek to keep from snapping at Shino. She couldn't really deny his reasoning or his motivations, but she couldn't tell him why Hinata was getting extra training without exposing the girl's secret. "I'm not making her do anything she doesn't want to do." She finally answered. "You want more than that you're going to have to get it out of her." She swung her legs over the branch and fell silently to the ground. "Wake her up and let's go. Practice is over, time for some missions."

Naruto nodded, grudgingly, and moved over to gently shake the sleeping girl's shoulder. "Oi, Hina-chan. Time to get up."

Hinata came awake almost immediately, but it was still clear that she was far from fully aware of her situation. "Did I fall asleep again? How long was I out?"

"About ten minutes." Shino replied as he moved past them following Anko toward the village. "Hyuuga-san, I admire your conviction in training but even the strongest of creatures need a time to rest."

Hinata blinked as the boy continued on. "Nani?"

Naruto sighed. "You're working yourself to the bone Hina-chan. You need to slow down or you're going to burn out." He stumbled back as, for the first time he could remember, Hinata frowned at him.

"Would you slow down your training if I told you to?" She asked forcefully.

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but no sound came forth. He wanted to say he would, even if it was just for the sake of this argument, but he knew it would be a lie. Ever since they had gone up to the Hokage monument almost a month ago they had all changed, Hinata most of all it seemed. "No, I guess I wouldn't."

Hinata stood, the adrenaline rush from her anger having given her a second wind. "Then please don't ask me to not do my best." Her smile returned as Naruto nodded in a half-defeated manner. "Come on, we should catch up to the others. We have missions to complete."

Naruto watched as Hinata jogged off to catch up to their other teammates. He scratched the back of his head for a moment as he tried to collect his thoughts. "She really has changed from that time." He whispered to himself as he ran to join the others. "I think we may have been a really bad influence on her Sasuke."

OOOOO

Minato looked up as his door opened and sighed dramatically. "You guys are back again?"

Naruto's face was turned into a deep scowl. "Well what do you expect? All you've been giving us are these little D-rank missions. Honestly, how does weeding gardens and delivering groceries and catching stupid cats supposed to help us become ninja? That's academy level stuff!"

Hinata hung her head in embarrassment for her friend as her own cheeks flushed bright red. "Naruto-kun…I know he's your dad, but he's still the Hokage. You should be a little more respectful."

Naruto's response was cut off as Anko pounded her fist into the blonde's head, leveling him with the floor. "She's right chibi. Watch your mouth in front of the pretty boy."

"That's even worse…" Hinata whispered to herself as her cheeks seemed to redden even more.

Minato couldn't help but laugh a little bit at the display, especially since Shino was as stoic faced as ever despite the antics of his teammates and sensei. "Ok, so the latest mission is completed." He pulled out the reward vouchers and handed them to Anko to be distributed later. "You guys know the drill with redeeming these at this point."

Anko nodded. "Our next mission?"

Minato sighed and sat back in his chair, his fist propped under one cheek so as to support his head. "Another mission? That was your fifth one today alone. Give it a rest for the day Anko."

Anko's eyes blazed at the blonde Hokage's words. It didn't matter the rank, she did not like being challenged as to how she managed her affairs. "This is my team. I'll decide when they're done for the day."

Naruto watched with a mixture of awe and terror as the two experienced shinobi seemed ready have one of their legendary brawls. He turned suddenly as he sensed the arrival of a group of people behind the door to the office. "Eh…sensei? Tou-san?"

"Yo. Sorry we're late. We got lost on the road of life and…"

"Uso!"

Hinata smiled a little as she recognized her friend's voice, and couldn't help but giggle a little as she remembered what Sakura had told her about Kakashi's habit of being late to everything and then making up excuses. Her attention then went to Sasuke. They made eye contact for a brief moment and then both quickly looked away.

Ever since Sasuke had found out that Hinata's team was doing two or three more missions a day than his team he had been quite awkward around her. Hinata's expression darkened a bit as she saw Choji enter the room and found herself unconsciously shifting away from the boy. The memories of their past encounters still vivid in her mind.

"Ah! Kakashi-nii!" Naruto's face lit up in an even brighter smile than usual. "What are you doing here?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, these guys were complaining a lot about their mission assignments lately so…"

"We were not!" Sakura insisted. "We just asked when you thought we'd be able to start taking on some higher ranked missions."

Choji pulled out a bag of chips and began to eat the contents none to quietly. "I don't see the issue with our recent roster. It gives us plenty of time to meet up with our friends and the pay gives us enough for snacks to spare."

Sasuke seemed to slump a little at this. "Do you want to be a shinobi or not? You think this is a game fat…"

Hinata moved across the room so swiftly that even she was surprised by the action. Her hand clamped over Sasuke's mouth and a thin sheen of sweat could be seen on her face. "You really don't want to finish that sentence." She warned in a whisper so that only Sasuke could hear.

"Oi! Sasuke! How many missions have you done today?" Naruto demanded, seemingly forever in competition with his friend and rival.

Sasuke pulled away from Hinata's covering hand, revealing the slight blush on his face, and turned his gaze to the ceiling to avoid letting the others see that fact. "Four. You?"

Naruto laughed triumphantly. "Ha! We did five! We win!"

"It's not a competition." Shino remarked quietly. "All drones work to the betterment of the hive."

Anko's and Sakura's eyebrows twitched madly. "Did you just call us drones?"

As much as he found this little display amusing, Minato knew he had other matters he had to see to today and he had to call this to a close. "Ok, ok." He clapped his hands together loudly to gain everyone's attention. Once everyone was quiet he looked over the assembled force. "You know…I may just have something for you guys."

Naruto looked on eagerly as his father pulled something out from one of the drawers of his desk. "Are you really going to give us a higher ranked mission?" He looked around and his face turned slightly in worry. "You're not going to give the mission to Sasuke's team rather than ours are you?" In his distraction he failed to notice the questioning looks that Anko and Kakashi shot at each other.

Hinata however, thanks to her years of practice watching people from isolation, did see the exchanged glace. Her mind raced at possibilities, but for the jounin to be caught off guard meant it was far outside her scope of knowledge. Occasions like this usually meant a semi-straightforward approach was best. "Naruto-kun, why don't we just wait to see what Hokage-sama has to say?" She suggested with a gentle smile.

Minato couldn't help but grin a little, knowing full well the ulterior meaning to Hinata's suggestion. "We recently got a request for a mission with some unique provisions."

Sasuke's attention perked at this. "Must be something big if your telling two teams about it. You've never done that before."

"That's true." Minato nodded. "You see, the request came in under one heading, but it will need two teams to fulfill it." He turned his attention to the door. "Come on in." The gennin all turned at the same time so as to view the two clients came in.

One was clearly older, at least judging by his hunched posture and gray beard. His clothing was worn and dusty as if it had been covered in dirt and dust so many times it would never look clean again no matter how many times it was washed. He carried a large pack on his back from which numerous papers and scrolls could be seen sticking out. His face was slightly flushed, and the sake flask tied to his hip gave a good indicator of why that was. Coupled with his large straw hat and tiny glasses on the edge of his nose he looked like looked like a kind, if tired, old traveler. That was, at least until he opened his mouth. "Oi, don't tell me these are the brats you're assigning to protect us."

"Who the hell are you calling a brat old man?!" Naruto demanded angrily as he took a step towards the man. "You better take that back right…" A second later his face was in the floor as Anko smacked him over the head.

"Now, now Pops." The second man chided with a friendly smile. "I'm sure these guys are capable of doing the work we need. Otherwise the Hokage wouldn't give them to us right?" He turned to the shinobi and bowed in apology. "Sorry about that. The boss has been under a lot of stress recently and uh…" He made motion with his hand as if drinking from a bottle. "It helps him relax."

Hinata looked at the younger man, and despite having called him "Pops" she could see no family resemblance of any kind between them. The assistant seemed to be in considerably better shape judging by his muscle tone. His clothing was in similar state to his boss, faded and tattered, but somehow it gave him a rather rugged look that the older man couldn't pull off. What Hinata found most interesting though was his smile. It wasn't forced despite the fact that she could see the man was in pain. He walked with a limp, though it was small and he hid it well, and his face had a fresh, cross-shaped scar on his chin.

"These men are from Wave Country." Minato spoke, pulling the gennin from their silent evaluations. He motioned to the older man and then the younger man. "This is Tazuna, and his assistant Kaiza."

Kakashi nodded in greeting to the two men and then turned to his former teacher. "I suspect it's a body guarding mission?"

"To simple." Anko shook her head. "Even if they are gennin on a low rank C mission, two teams are over kill. What's really going on here?"

"Sharp as ever you two." Minato nodded. "Although they are both returning to Wave Country, they are returning by different routes. That's why we need two teams."

Choji finished his chips and shoved the empty bag into his pocket. "If they're going to the same place, why don't they go together?"

"What difference does it make brat?" Tazuna demanded.

"Boss, please." Kaiza attempted to calm the other man. "It's a fair enough question to ask." He turned to Choji and nodded as he began to explain. "The boss has to get back to our village as soon as possible, but I have to go with the supply convoy. That's my responsibility. You understand? I have to make sure the bridge supplies get home safely."

Kakashi nodded. "I thought the name Tazuna sounded familiar."

"You've heard of this guy?" Anko asked in disbelief.

The cycloptic jounin nodded, then shook his head. "Not in the most direct sense. There was a character name Mazuna in my books and he was also a bridge builder. The author must have met him…" Kakashi's explanation was cut off as Sakura attempted to pound her teacher over the head. "Hey, she asked."

"_Sensei no hanta baka_…" Sakura muttered as she pouted angrily for missing her attack. "I swear, when I get stronger I'm going to take those little orange books and…"

"So?" Naruto turned to his father again, inadvertently interrupting Sakura's rant in his excitement over a mission outside the village. "Which team gets which assignment?"

Minato shrugged his shoulders and sighed. "Well, it's not a definite thing yet." He grinned slightly as he looked over at the two supervising shinobi. "After all, your teachers have to accept the missions first."

Anko glared daggers at her commander. "You son of a…" She muttered under her breath.

Naruto grinned, and edged slightly away from Anko. "What was it you told me before? To watch my mouth, wasn't it?"

"I hate you all." Anko growled. "I should be relaxing with some dango after an S-rank interrogation or something not…"

"I-if we were to take the missions…" Hinata began. "Team eight is better equipped for the convoy portion. Team seven is better established for a personal defense mission." She looked at the floor again as she realized everyone was watching her. "At least, that's what I think."

Minato nodded. "That's a good assessment Hinata." He smiled and looked over to Anko. "Well, are you going to offer a different assessment to correct your student?"

Anko sighed and shook her head. "All right already. We'll take the damn job." She glared at Minato. "But you owe me when we get back."

Minato grinned, much like Naruto usually did. "_Hai, hai._ I'll have some of that special dango you like so much put aside for your return." His gaze shifted a little bit. "And you Kakashi?"

"Yeah sure." Replied the other jounin. "They could use a little bit of a step up in their training."

"If you showed up on time we would have already gotten a step up in training." Muttered Sakura.

"Ok then. Both teams will report to the main gate tomorrow and head out together." The Hokage pulled out a few pieces of paper and placed his seal on them as having been accepted. "How you split up your teams after that will be up to your jounin-sensei. If there are no questions, you are dismissed. I suggest you use the time to prepare." He smiled at the children. "Good luck out there."

Hinata followed silently as the two teams left the Hokage's office. They were really going to leave the village, and she couldn't really decide how she felt about that. Konoha was her home, and she had already decided that she would be its protector. However, she couldn't deny that some small part of her was looking forward to going somewhere that people wouldn't know who and what she was. Some place, any place, that she would have something of a clean slate and people wouldn't stare at her.

"Oi!" Naruto raised his voice as Hinata continued to ignore him. "Konoha to Hinata." He waved his hand in front of her face. "You listening to me?"

Hinata blinked as she was pulled from her thoughts. "What? I'm sorry…" She bowed her head. "I guess I was kind of far away."

Naruto grinned. "It's ok. I'm really excited about our first real mission too."

"Yeah…I guess that's what it is." Hinata agreed, not wanting to ruin Naruto's excitement. "So, I guess we should go get prepared right?"

"Agreed." Shino nodded. "Wave country is about a three day walk. The canals that we will travel are faster, but are longer in distance. Most likely a four to five day trip, best to plan for a week long excursion."

Naruto frowned and folded his hands behind his head as they walked. "A week? Man, that sucks."

Hinata blinked in confusion at her friend. "What do you mean? You were the one who wanted to take the mission most of all."

"Yeah, I know." Naruto agreed. "It just means I'm not going to be able to have any Ichiraku ramen for a week." He sighed. "And there's no way _ka-san_ is going to let me bring enough instant to last me the whole trip."

"It is amazing how much you let your stomach dictate your thoughts." Shino remarked as moved to the front of the group. "Please learn some self control."

Hinata raised her hand to cover her mouth to try and stifle her laughter as she watched Naruto's jaw go slack at Shino's comment. "Well, I suppose we should stop by the supply shops in town." She stepped between the two boys before Naruto could try to launch some kind of counter comment to Shino. Her smile returned as both boys nodded, though Naruto continued to glare at Shino as they walked.

"Well, as long as we're going to have a new level of mission..." Naruto began. "Maybe we should try visiting some of the better quality shops. See if they have any equipment that's more sturdy."

Shino nodded. "A worthwhile assessment."

Hinata blinked as the two boys began to walk in a different direction than the stores they usually went to. "_Anon…_" While she wanted to look at the new stores, she really hadn't been to any of them before. The old stores she knew would sell her items, even if some of them did glare at her or over charge as they did so. If these new stores refused her service, or even entry, there would be a lot of wasted time for her team.

"_Oi Hina-chan_!" Naruto called. "Hurry up! You're falling behind."

"_H-hai!_!" Running to catch up with her teammates, Hinata looked over the surrounding stores with a careful eye. Her gaze locked on one of the more run down looking stores as she looked through the window. "Naruto-kun? Shino-kun? Could we look in here?"

Naruto looked over the crumbling mortar of the building front and the faded, cracked, wooden sign that hung over the door. Given that the building was in such bad shape he wondered why it was in the more expensive area of the financial district. He was about to suggest they press on to another store when he remembered his father's and Kakashi's favorite saying. "Underneath the underneath…" He muttered quietly.

Shino nodded silently. He had come to understand that Hinata was often very accommodating to others and rarely asked favors of her team. When she did, Shino had discovered that Hinata's reasons and instincts were usually dead on.

As Hinata entered the store she found herself filled with a slight feeling of apprehension. Barrels and crates full of weaponry filled the floor space almost completely leaving only narrow walkways to travel. The walls of the small building were covered floor to ceiling with even more weapons leaving barely an inch of open space between each item. Even so, Hinata found most of her attention focused on the shopkeeper.

She was about the same age as Hinata's uncle or perhaps a little younger. Her long, brown, hair was pulled back by a simple hair band and a few stray strands were held in place behind her ears. Her eyes were matched in tone to her hair and focused intently on the large, heavy broadsword braced against the counter top and her knee. Her hands moved deftly over the blade as she made full use of the polishing kit at her side. She was dressed in a simple gray Chinese style shirt and black pants.

Despite the fact that the woman was so absorbed with her work on the sword, Hinata got the impression that not a single movement made by the three children escaped her attention. She couldn't help but wonder if the store had been arranged in this way so as to limit customers' movement and allow the owners better chance of catching shoplifters. Although there was a certain something about the woman that was familiar, Hinata turned her attention to more immediate concerns.

"The quality of these are amazing…" Naruto whispered as he looked over the various pieces around the store. "Kunai, shuriken, razor wire, katanas…and for really cheap considering…"

"We pride ourselves on supplying the shinobi of Konoha with the finest weapons we can." The woman spoke without looking up. "We prefer to invest the money we make into refining our craft, rather than adding superficial beauty to our shop."

Shino nodded in appreciation. "A non-to-common mind set unfortunately. I shall have to remember to return to this shop."

"Nana!" Called a man's voice from the back of the shop. "Where'd that shipment of iron get stored? I wanted to start smithing it for that custom order we got!"

The woman at the counter sighed. "It's a damn good thing you're good with a forge...cause _Kami_ knows you're dumb as a brick with everything else." Nana sighed and gazed at each of the gennin a moment. "Don't do anything stupid. I'll be right back."

Naruto pouted as Nana slipped back behind the curtain to the back of the store. "What does she think we're going to do? It's not like we're thieves or something like that."

Hinata let a little smile cross her lips as she continued to look over the supplies, selecting pieces as she found something she liked. The woman, Nana, seemed to take Hinata's presence somewhat neutrally so there didn't seem to be any risk of not being sold to. "I'm sure she's just looking to protect her store, that's all."

"Yeah, I guess…"

Having selected the items she felt she needed Hinata moved over to the counter to prepare her money. She stopped however as she came to look at the broadsword still on the counter. Crouching down a little Hinata studied the edge of the blade, for something so large it was incredibly sharp.

"You like it?"

Hinata snapped upright as she heard Nana's voice. "What? Oh…yes. It seems like an excellent weapon."

"You think so?" Nana smirked a little. "Want to give it a test cut?"

Hinata blinked in surprise, but couldn't deny that the idea of trying to wield the giant blade thrilled her. With Jyuuken at their disposal, the Hyuuga clan considered unarmed combat to be the pinnacle of fighting prowess. To need a weapon to fight was considered a weakness. "I…perhaps I shouldn't. I've never held anything more than kunai or shuriken. I have no skill with _kinjutsu_."

Nana raised an eyebrow as she looked at Hinata. "Come with me." Hefting the sword easily she motioned for Hinata to move behind the counter. "I know that tone. Same as my daughter had when I started her training."

Hinata felt herself moving as if on autopilot after the older woman. There was really no reason for her to even attempt using the sword, she never would own one in any case after all. The allure to hold a weapon larger than a kunai however was too good to pass up though. As she moved past the back curtain she saw that the back of the shop was in much the same state as the front of the shop. The only difference being that the floor was littered with the raw materials for the construction of weapons.

As Hinata looked a little farther back she swore she could see what looked like living quarters. The notion of someone living within a blacksmith shop seemed most uncomfortable to Hinata. She was also fairly certain that the village at large frowned upon such practices. The young girl shook her head; it was not her place to judge others and how they lived. How much had she hated being judged after all?

"Yo, come on now." Called Nana from the back yard. "You going to give me a hand or not?"

Stepping up her pace, Hinata found herself in a barren back lot filled with broken weapon parts and a single tree in failing health. She felt a little bit of bile rise in the back of her throat as she saw a large pig carcass hanging by it's hind legs from one of the upper branches. "What is this for?"

"For the test cut." Nana stated as though it should be obvious. She moved to the dead pig and gave it a couple of light back-fist strikes to ensure that the flesh hadn't rotted too much. "During the war we were allowed to test the weapons on prisoners slated for torture and execution, but now-a-days such things aren't allowed." Nana turned to face Hinata again. "Piggy here is the next best thing we can get to accurately test how good or bad our weapons really cut."

Hinata jumped as Nana spun the broadsword effortlessly so as to extend the pommel toward her. Taking a few steps forward, and swallowing hard, Hinata gripped the handle. "So…all you would like me to do is cut at the pig with this sword?"

"Yep, that's all." Nana nodded as she released her own grip on the sword. The moment her hold fell away, the heavy iron blade plummeted to the ground and bit deep into the hardened soil. "You might want to use two hands."

Hinata bit her lip to try and suppress the hiss of pain from escaping her. The blade had fallen so fast she was sure she had sprained her elbow trying to keep it upright. Even as she placed her other hand around the blade handle she sincerely doubted that she could lift such a heavy sword on her own, not that she was going to give up.

It was at this point that Naruto tore his eyes away from all the things he wanted to purchase and finally realized that Hinata had still not come back yet. He looked to Shino and nodded towards the back room where the two women had disappeared. After a moment of thinking both boys moved quietly to the rear of the shop to see Hinata struggling with the sword. Naruto's head cocked to one side as he tried to determine what Hinata was trying to do, but then shook his head. "What is she trying to prove?" He asked aloud as he tried to step forward.

Shino's arm raised and extended out to bar his teammate's path at that same instant. The hair on the back of his neck was standing on end, the same as it had the first day that they had been assigned to a team together. There was also the fact that his insects were ready to flee from even his body as if there was no shelter for them. Though he did not feel as if he was in any danger, he knew better than to overlook the sentiments of his allies. "Wait."

Naruto nodded warily as he watched bugs scurry over the exposed portions of Shino's skin. "Never seen that happen before." He remarked in a half-joking tone.

Hinata's arms burned as she poured more and more chakra through her channels to keep her muscles from tearing under the strain. At last she hoisted the broadsword into the air and held it more like a club than an actual sword. Knowing she wasn't going to be able to maintain her pose for much longer she swung, barely maintaining her balance let alone her control. With a grunt of effort she felt herself move the blade through the air and into the body before her. Pain suddenly ripped through her arms all the way up to her shoulders forcing her to let go of her weapon.

"Hina-chan!" Naruto ran toward his friend as she fell to the ground. Behind him Shino was also moving quickly to the girl's aid.

Nana looked between the girl and the sword that was still stuck deeply within the pig. "Such a small child…and able to make so deep a wound." She murmured quietly so the other children couldn't here. "She truly is his child."

Hinata slowly pushed herself up off the ground and smiled weakly at Naruto and Shino. "I'm ok. I just lost my footing is all." She looked up at Nana. "How did I do?"

Nana nodded. "Very well. Thank you. You've been a great help."

Naruto glared at Nana. "Help? What do you mean? Hina-chan could have been really hurt."

"Weapons have to be evaluated for a number of different properties." Nana easily pulled the sword from the gapping wound in the dead animal. "The cut test was only part of what I wanted to see."

Shino for once seemed confused openly. "Explain."

Nana nodded and walked over to the tree that supported the carcass. "If all I wanted to do was test the edge of the blade, I could have done that myself." She spun the blade with one hand and then brought it down in a quick slash.

Naruto scrunched his face as nothing happened. "What was that supposed to prove…" His words trailed of as the tree began to slide on an angle and then crashed into the yard. He walked through the cloud of dust and studied the perfectly smooth edges of the base where the tree had been cut. "Whoa…"

Hinata swallowed hard as she saw the difference between herself and Nana. She had already seen the difference in being able to simply holding the sword, but to cut through the tree which was many times harder than a body only served to reinforce that idea. "Then why did you need me?"

Nana whipped the blade through the air, flinging off the dust and blood that remained on the blade. "Because you are not trained, and because you are not strong enough to use such a weapon. You are the perfect simulation." She chuckled as she saw the looks of confusion on the _gennins'_ faces. "Think of it this way, if someone had trained to use this blade but then became injured on the battlefield, would they be able to wield it properly?"

Shino shook his head. "You needed to see how effective the weapon would be if someone was seriously debilitated."

"Yes." Nana nodded and turned to head back to her shop. "A weapon is only as good as you can be even at your worst. Remember that for the future."

Naruto frowned. "Why do we need to remember that?"

"To look for weaknesses in your opponents, and in yourself." Nana smiled. "You come see me when you're ready for specialized weapons of your own. In the mean time, I'll give you guys a discount on your purchases today for helping me out."

Hinata smiled as she saw Naruto's mood turn around. "A weapon of my own…" She thought aloud as she decided to pick up a few more items since she could afford it now. "I wonder what I'd get if I could train with a weapon…"

OOOOO

"Thought I'd find you up here."

Hinata turned slowly and smiled as Sasuke sat beside her atop the Hokage monument. "I guess I'll have to start finding new places to think then. It's not good for a shinobi's actions to be so predictable."

"That's true sometimes." Sasuke nodded. "But at other times it can be good to be able to predict where someone would go. Like if you were hurt and someone else was trying to find you."

"I suppose that makes sense." Hinata nodded. "Though, if I were hurt I don't think I'd come all the way up here." She smiled. "I think I'd go to the medical center first."

Sasuke smirked. "Yeah, that probably would be better."

Hinata watched him quietly. His smirk was present as it was most times they were together, but there was a light in his eyes that she had not seen there in some time. "You're excited…about tomorrow."

Sasuke nodded, and indeed his eyes did seem to brighten in response to her question. "Yeah, I am. It all…finally means something."

Hinata blinked. "I don't understand what you mean."

"It's like Naruto said earlier." Sasuke turned his head to look at Hinata better. "I didn't become a ninja to weed gardens or catch stray cats. I became a ninja to become stronger. To rebuild my clan and regain my…my family's honor."

Hinata sighed slightly as she saw the light fade from Sasuke's eyes once again. Even in his happiest moments he could not shake the memories of that night and the emotions they regularly brought up. "Your father…" She almost stopped as she saw Sasuke's head jerk up right and his body tightened. "If you had told him about your mission tomorrow, he would have said something like 'As expected of my son' right?"

Sasuke stared at his friend for a few seconds as if unsure of what Hinata had just said. His expression then relaxed and he smiled. It was not his usual arrogant smirk, but a true smile that was seen so little and by so few. He turned away from Hinata and rested his head in his hand so that it obscured his face to Hinata's view. "Yeah. At least, I hope he would have said something like that."

Hinata smiled softly as well. They both knew full well that when Sasuke sat like that he was trying to hide his emotions, but Hinata did her best to pretend that she had no idea of this so as to give Sasuke the moments he needed. If the change in his breathing was any indication, she wouldn't be surprised if he had a few tears on his face right now. She couldn't give him back his family, but she could do her best to remind them of all the good points and hope that was enough to get him through the dark times.

It was hard to tell how much time had passed, but the moon had shifted quite a bit by the time the silence was finally broken. Sasuke, after trying to wipe his face as discretely as possible, stood up. "It's getting late. We should probably get home, get some sleep before our missions."

Hinata watched as Sasuke began to walk away, watching the Uchiha family crest become less and less visible in the darkness of the night. "Sasuke-kun…" She barely whispered as she worried where his thoughts might be at right now.

The raven hair clan heir looked back over his shoulder as he came to a halt. "You coming or not?" He asked simply.

Hinata stood quickly and moved to walk besides him. "Don't do that."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Don't do what?"

"Don't just…don't leave me behind like that." She blushed a little as she realized what she said. "Don't leave us behind without saying anything like that. It's worrisome."

Sasuke smiled and continued to walk, seeming not to catch Hinata's slip in choice of words. "How could I leave you guys behind? You're the only ones who'll talk about the past anymore."

Hinata didn't entirely trust his answer, but she decided to leave it alone for now. Neither spoke as they came down from the Hokage monument and only exchanged a simple good night as they went their separate ways toward their ancestral homes. Hinata looked up at the moon in the sky once more as she neared the Hyuuga Estate, her thoughts a mystery even to herself.

End

OOOOO

A/N: So? Good? Bad? Other? If you have a moment please leave a little something to tell me what you think. It helps me improve later chapters and, in all honesty, reminds me not to be lazy and write more often.

'Till the next, live well all.


End file.
